Young people homeless at 18
Having to move out of their homes on their 18th birthday.
For most young people in Austria, their 18th birthday is a reason to celebrate – finally independent, finally of age. But for some it is a sad day because their parents no longer feel responsible and they have to move out of their home. Around 20,000 people in Austria are registered as homeless, and the number of unreported cases is likely to be far higher. According to estimates as many as 40,000 people who are not obviously living on the streets but are staying with relatives or friends.
A third of all homeless people in Austria are between 18 and 30 years old. So, now a new program from the Ministry of Social Affairs is focusing on Housing First for this age group.
Around a third of all homeless people are young people between the ages of 18 and 30. The Association of Viennese Assistance for the Homeless has published a new report on their situation. According to the report, the most common reasons for homelessness are the following. A lack of affordable housing, bureaucratic hurdles, addictions, a lack of employment and training and a lack of social networks. According to Roland Skowronek from the Salvation Army, there are too few specific services for young adults.
Too much bureaucracy
Homelessness at a young age has a lasting effect on biographies, says Andreas Gampert from Diakonie: far too much time often passes from the onset of homelessness until people enter the system. Care leavers in particular are at risk. Such as young people who have lived in a care home, foster family or SOS Children’s Village and then have to leave the facility. State support is only extended until the age of 21 on application and in very few cases.
The result is high-risk forms of accommodation: For example, women stay in special-purpose relationships that are often characterized by violence, asylum seekers live five to a room in mattress dormitories and pay hundreds of euros for this, or young addicts move from one apartment to the next, says Gampert.
Elisabeth Hammer from Neunerhaus emphasizes that in Austria, with a large proportion of municipal and subsidized housing, there is great potential to bring about an early end to homelessness.
Housing First
To get closer to this goal, the ‘Housing First Austria’ program was launched last week. The Ministry of Social Affairs is providing 6.6 million euros to support measures that should enable around 1,000 people to get their own home again by the end of 2024. The project is being carried out by the ‘Federal Working Group’ for Assistance to the Homeless in cooperation with 70 non-profit developers. They are providing the 500 apartments.
People have to pay the rent themselves, while the funding is used for relocations, deposits and financial contributions. Around 25 participating social organizations decide who the apartments go to. The people are supported by social workers and young people in particular are given a new perspective.
(Bernadette Redl, 19.11.2023)
Translated from the German
Source: Der Standard
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