NCJ Number
154059
Journal
Youth Studies Australia Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: (Autumn 1995) Pages: 22-28
Date Published
1995
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article presents the findings of a national Australian survey of homeless school students; 99 percent of all government and Catholic schools completed a census form. Data were also obtained during field visits to 100 schools in all States and territories of Australia.
Abstract
The census findings showed that there were about 10,440 homeless school students during the week of the census, of which 810 had no accommodation, 1,800 lived in government funded housing, 4,540 had temporary accommodation with friends or relatives, 3,160 were recently homeless and still staying at their schools, and 130 lived in boarding houses. Sixty-one percent of the schools reported having homeless students; the other 39 percent had had prior instances of homeless students who were no longer in the school. This figure probably underestimates the magnitude of the problem due to the high turnover and dropout rates among homeless students. This article argues that policies directed toward early intervention should focus primarily on schools and provide adequate resources for schools to help homeless students. This would require that resources for homeless youth be centralized in one agency in order to coordinate service delivery. 6 tables, 1 figure, and 19 references