ABSTRACT
Theo Butler, Community Advisory Group Member with lived experience of couch-surfing, Rhianon Vichta-Ohlsen, Brisbane Youth Service Research and Evaluation Manager and Dr Katie Hail-Jares, Griffith Criminology Institute
Homelessness is commonly associated with images of rough sleeping. There is, however, increasing awareness that the majority of homeless young people are surviving in a less visible way, opting to couch-surf as a way to avoid sleeping rough, to escape child safety intervention or to find safer spaces than their home environments when crisis accommodation is not available or accessible.
Young people who couch surf because they have no safe or stable home of their own represent a transient, somewhat hidden group who can be hard to identify, understand, and support.