Call for youth foyer to help tackle homelessness in the NT

Youth foyer should be considered to tackle homelessness in the NT, advocates say Thu 18 Jun 2026 at 5:55pm In short: The peak national body advocating for better housing outcomes for low-income Australians says a youth foyer should be part of the discussion in Central Australia. The Northern Territory has significantly higher rates of homelessness and overcrowding than other jurisdictions, with children and young people representing almost 50 per cent of the NT's homeless population. What's next? Advocates say youth foyers have been successful in other locations and hope to see the model replicated in the Northern Territory. Youth homelessness rates remain stubbornly high in Central Australia and advocates are renewing calls for a transitional housing model for young people to be established to tackle the issue. The NT has the highest rates of homelessness in Australia, with 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census data revealing children and young people, aged under 24, represented almost 50 per cent of the NT's homeless population. Annie Taylor, chief executive of the NT's peak housing and homelessness body, NT Shelter, said that since a 2023 report highlighted the disproportionate levels of youth homelessness in Alice Springs the case for a youth foyer had only strengthened. What is a youth foyer? Youth foyers are housing and support facilities for vulnerable people aged 16 to 24 that provide a safe and stable place to live for up to two years. They allow young people to access wraparound support while they study or search for work. "The gap is still there and a foyer is a really practical way to start closing that gap and changing things," Ms Taylor said. "Youth foyers work and, across Australia, they've seen over 80 per cent of young people exiting foyers into safe and stable accommodation. "Most of those young people are going into the private market, which is that redirection we need, because the NT doesn't have the social housing to continue to support the amount of people who need social housing." Severe overcrowding remains a key driver of youth homelessness in Central Australia, with homeless young people at more risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system. Ms Taylor said youth foyers were not a "silver bullet" for issues such as crime, but establishing housing stability was a preventative measure. "The drivers of youth homelessness largely remain the same," Ms Taylor said. "Overcrowding really remains entrenched, and that's whether you're looking at remote communities or you're looking at our urban centres, and young people continue to experience homelessness at rates far greater than the rest of Australia. "The demand for services continues to just exceed the capacity of services — the data is telling a story of a system that is really stuck in place." 'Successful model' National Shelter chief executive Jackson Hills said youth foyers were "missing" from the discussion about solutions to youth homelessness in the NT. He said he hoped local, territory and federal governments would invest in a youth foyer "in the very near-term". "There's about 35 [youth foyers] operating across the country," Mr Hills said. "Where I'm based down in Queensland there's three and … our state government's got a target for 10, which is really ambitious … it's a successful model in so many other parts of the country." Given the unique complexities faced by different regions in Australia, no youth foyer is exactly the same. "[A youth foyer] could be in a multi-storey unit complex or it could be in a scattered side of some low-rise development," Mr Hills said. "But the key is it's all in one location and it's supported by staff 24/7, and it also has what you might call security — we prefer to call [it] concierge. It has entry and exit protocols. "That protects the people that are living in that environment, particularly after-hours, but it also protects other people in the community." Work has begun NT Shelter and Anglicare are spearheading the NT's first foyer working group, which is made up of Aboriginal organisations and housing providers. They just hope governments come to the table. "Our context is different — we're not Sydney, we're not Brisbane. We're different than other jurisdictions," Ms Taylor said. "We want to make sure that the foyer model can suit us and that it's going to suit a place like Alice Springs."