Kristie and Isabel are the faces of WA’s youth homelessness crisis. Here’s what can be done to help them

As teenagers, sisters Kristie and Isabel Taylor became homeless, joining a growing cohort of young people across Western Australia locked out of housing options.

Next week the pair, now 21 and 17, will finally move into a home with a 12-month lease. But the road to get there has been long and challenging.

Kristie, Isabel and their sister were split up as children, sent to live with different carers or in group homes.

Kristie was kicked out of a group home at 18, and spent nights sleeping in the carpark of the Rockingham Train Station, where she knew security cameras would capture “anything that went wrong”.

Isabel said she had been living with a bad carer, and had run away back to her mother’s place, before having to leave again.

“Even trying to get into group homes, it’s hard because there’s obviously quite a few people without houses, it’s really a struggle,” she said.

“Organisations like the Department for Child Protection, they weren’t much help at all because I wasn’t under their care any more.

“When I called up and asked for help they pretty much just said it wasn’t their problem.”

The sisters found their way back to each other and ended up living on the beach in a tent as they worked to rebuild their relationship.

While morning pancakes and lamb koftas cooked on public barbecues were looked back on fondly, Kristie said the sisters had been in “survival mode 24/7”, hiding their tent and padlocking it, and not knowing when they would be able to afford to eat.

“It was a bit rough, not having your own place to come back to where you can settle down and feel like you can actually relax,” she said.

“I wanted to get my [driver’s] licence, I wanted to get a job, but without having a stable place, it is very, very hard to get that.”

They eventually found an apartment with a three-month lease on Facebook marketplace, but have been couch-surfing since the lease ended, including in a hostel and at their cousin’s place.

“We’re so used to it that it doesn’t really feel as bad as it should be because we’ve been in this situation so many times. It’s sad to say, but we find it normal,” Kristie said.

Salvation Army youth services WA manager Guy Rees said in the last three years, the organisation had seen a huge increase in people experiencing homelessness – particularly young people.

The main cause, Rees said, was family and domestic violence.

“No child or young person chooses to be homeless, but the number of documents that people have to have, all the magical financial resources behind them – they’re huge barriers to finding a home,” he said.

“It’s difficult to get a house full stop, but it’s extremely difficult if you’re young and if you’ve had a care experience, or you’ve experienced homelessness.

“Then there’s the financial barriers that being on a youth allowance creates – you can’t compete with private rentals, certainly not in the current market where even adults with full-time jobs cannot afford it.”

The youth allowance, provided through Centrelink, is less than half of what is offered for the disability allowance and pension payments, and is also less than JobSeeker.

For those who could prove they needed to live away from home, including in situations involving violence, the maximum amount on offer was $783.30 per fortnight for those aged 16-17.

Without proof, the maximum amount is $663.30.

Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said that payment also stopped young people from accessing community housing.

That’s because rent is charged as a percentage of income and with long waitlists, those with higher incomes are often given placements over those on less.

A lack of rental history also plays a part.

Nationally, just 3 per cent of community housing is taken up by those aged 15 to 17 without a parent or guardian.

“Commonwealth rent assistance is paid based on the amount of rent you pay, so young people in housing are getting maybe $5 per week if they are eligible for that scheme,” Colvin said.

“The whole system is set up to let them down.”

When asked whether they would consider changing the rate of pay, a Department of Social Services spokesperson said the maximum rate of youth allowance for a person over the age of 18 and living away from home had increased by nearly $3500 per year since 2022.

They said the maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance had increased by almost 50 per cent since March 2022.

Colvin said if the federal government increased the youth allowance payments to be in line with JobSeeker, it would put young people on a more even playing field.

She is advocating for national campaign Home Time, which calls on state and federal governments to do more to help get young people into secure housing.

Part of that call involves addressing the rental gap through increasing Centrelink payments, as well as asking the federal government to develop and maintain a national pool of 15,000 dedicated youth tenancies for 16 to 24-year-olds.

Representatives from some of the 170 frontline services and organisations supporting the Home Time campaign also spoke about those issues in a panel discussion during the National Housing Conference in Perth last week.

Throughout the three-day conference, people were encouraged to build a Lego house – with a 620 built to represent the 620 homes that are needed in WA alone by children aged 15-17.

For Kristie and Isabel, who were part of that statistic, finding a stable home was a process that took much longer than it should have.

Kristie’s advice for anyone struggling to find a place was to reach out and “make it known you need help”.

“I know a lot of people don’t like to talk about their problems, and it could be embarrassing in a way, for some people,” she said.

“But honestly, speak up … just try to seek as much help as you can from people you know or, worse comes to worst, organisations like the Salvation Army.”

The sisters are about to move into their first stable home, organised through the Salvation Army.

“We’re really looking forward to it, to having our own space,” Kristie said.

“You can be in a house, but if it doesn’t feel safe that’s not a home – a home is somewhere where you’re stable, you’re happy.”

Kristie said she had chosen to speak up about her experience publicly because she felt homeless young people were often blamed for their circumstances.

“A lot of people think it’s all behavioral, but teenagers have that behaviour for a reason, they’ve often grown up with that behaviour,” she said.

“There must be a reason why they’re acting out ... it’s not just a kid wanting to run amok or wanting to be trouble, they are just asking for help in a different way.”

This article was originally published on WAtoday and can be read here.