Labor MP Josh Burns has plans to fix youth homelessness.
The federal government’s new envoy for social housing and homelessness says the housing system has for too long been stacked against young people, particularly those experiencing homelessness.
Burns says Labor is committed to earmarking a portion of the government’s planned 55,000 new social housing properties specifically for young people.
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In his first interview as envoy, Burns says the government needs to allocate some of its grants to buildsocial and affordable homesto fix the problem.
“One of the big groups that’s missing out, just by the way in which the housing system is designed, is young people,” he says.
“Unless we allocate within government programs for youth specific homes, structurally, they just miss out.”
Representing the inner-Melbourne seat of Macnamara since 2019, the 38-year-old is one of the younger MPs in parliament. To get here, he’s faced a difficult three-way contest for his seat, fending off both the Liberals and Greens.
The grandson of European Jewish immigrants, Burns has experienced a barrage of antisemitism, after the outbreak of war in Gaza. He’s been a key voice for the Jewish community in government, on the issue of antisemitism that dominated headlines in the lead-up to the election.
“We need to be able to have difficult conversations, but respectfully and mindfully,”he says.
Formerly an adviser to Victorian premier Daniel Andrews before being preselected in Macnamara, Burns has worked his way up the Labor ladder. Before politics, Burns says he worked as a teacher’s aide and a factory hand.
Burns says he’s “passionate” about his new role, handed to him by Anthony Albanese, with its focus on stopping young people facing homelessness falling through the cracks.
“One of the big things I’ve been tasked to do is help paint a really clear picture of what’s happening at the moment, what some of the barriers are, and where we can have the biggest impact, along with the states and territories and the sector.”
One of the most significant problems is the cost of housing for a young person on youth allowance – the welfare payment for those under the age of 22.
Community housing providerscharge rent at about 25% of assessable income (the youth allowance or jobseeker rate) plus the amount of commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) that person’s eligible for.
Because youth allowance is lower than the Jobseeker payment, providers can lose up to 30% of rent from a young tenant, versus an older one on jobseeker.
Shorna Moore, from Melbourne City Mission (MCM), calls this the “youth housing penalty”. She says it acts as a disincentive for social housing providers to accommodate someone on youth allowance, because they receive less money.
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“Young people aged 15 to 24 who are alone with nowhere to live represent 15% of the overall homelessness population, but they only represent 3% of social housing tenants,” Moore says.
“The housing built for a young person might cost the same as … for any other adult, but you need to ask the government for more money to cover the gap in the lower rental [income].”
The government and opposition have both said they don’t want house prices to fall, but Burns acknowledges that has a flow on effect to the cost of renting, and by extension, homelessness.
“If there are fewer homes for people who can afford to become homeowners, then … there’s more people in the rental market, it means more pressure on rental prices,” he says.
“And then there are more people who are trying to access long term social housing or who are living in insecure homes, so all of this is connected.”
The consequences of not providing safe housing are severe. Every four days, a homeless person between 15 and 24 dies, the majority by suicide, according to MCM data.
TheHomelessnessAustralia chief executive, Kate Colvin, says many young people living in rough conditions, including couch surfing, suffer sexual abuse.
“Young people being sexually exploited is really very common when they’re homeless,” she says. As a result, Colvin says her organisation sees “high rates” of suicide and mental ill health , “with just really devastating long-term impacts”.
MCM and Homelessness Australia are among 170 organisations in the Home Time coalition campaigning for 15,000 of the government’s 55,000 promised social and affordable homes to be dedicated to young people.
Burns says he’s looking at solutions to make building youth-specific housing viable.
“It’s very difficult for community housing providers who already have to stretch budgets to bring in [young] people … [It’s] ensuring that in planning the next round of social housing builds that we are really paying attention to and allocating funds that help provide new homes for young people.”