Young people may also be vulnerable due to their age and circumstances. For example, young people may be unemployed, have no rental history and be isolated from any support services and family or be inexperienced at managing a tenancy.
Even those young people who are fortunate enough to find accommodation, will often find it difficult to maintain their tenancy.
Brisbane Youth Service commenced a Sustaining Tenancies Project in August 2016 to explore how support agencies and housing providers can work together to reduce homelessness by assisting young people to maintain their tenancies.
The project is being undertaken in partnership with Bric Housing, Brisbane Housing Company, and the Department of Housing and Public Works and will run for eighteen months to January 2018. We will be working together to identify vulnerable tenancies and then developing a shared plan to support them.
A rigorous evaluation process will be a feature of the project. The evaluation will measure the effectiveness of strategies to support young people, and inform the development of future tenancy support models.
Brisbane Youth Service is very excited to be given the opportunity to address a long standing gap for young people and to work with housing providers on this shared goal of sustaining young people’s independent housing.
For more information, contact Adam Barnes, Project Manager Sustaining Tenancies at adambarnes@brisyouth.org.