The charities point to a lack of assessment of their often acute and complex challenges — and lack of housing and support to deal with them effectively.
They were commenting after an Otago Daily Times special investigation revealed a vulnerable 18-year-old attempted suicide after a government department made the decision to put him up in a motel room on his own.
Director of the Methodist Mission Southern Laura Black says the "utterly unacceptable" decision was due to a system "set up to fail young people potentially for the rest of their lives at a time when they are rightly depending on us, the adults, to come to the party and ensure they do not".
The system should instead "organise so our focus is not on the administratively simple but on the most effective solution from the viewpoint of the person".
Needs can be psychosocial — an interaction of behavioural and social challenges exacerbated if there are non-existent or fragmented care paths.
Young homeless people require "wrap-around care focused on them", Ms Black says. Instead, government responses are delivered in silos and young people are "forced to navigate the system themselves" — when not equipped to do so.
Otago Youth Wellness Trust manager Claire Ramsay says: "Dunedin has a problem, whether Wellington admits it or not. Kids in this city are falling down really big gaps."
She points to the fundamental need for more housing that also provides the "support young people need when they don’t have the capability to live on their own". But, she adds pointedly, "we can’t just magic this out of nowhere".
However, it is "common" for young people to age out of care without disability diagnoses or tailored support, Prof Gibbs says.
Thrust into the community, there can then be huge risks from bad influences, she said — for example, being trained to offend, or exploited for sex.
"Those who are the most vulnerable and need the most help are often the most rejected due to behaviours. There is a wholesale, woeful, systemic failure to support them. This leads to inevitable chaos in their lives."
"Chaos" can harm others, as well as themselves — for example, recent incidents of high-speed road racing by teenagers.
The teenager’s motel room was funded by a Ministry of Social Development emergency housing "special needs grant" (SNG). The government’s recent review of emergency housing slammed "a heavy reliance on the SNG, which as an income support mechanism is not suitable for ... supporting clients with complex and multiple needs".
The review said young people leaving state care were particularly at "high risk of housing deprivation" and the emergency housing system "does not cater effectively" for young homeless people with "multiple, compounding and complex needs, as well as fragmented personal support systems".
The Cabinet Office’s social wellbeing committee agreed to implement a new assessment and referral pathway for emergency accommodation and support, with the SNG "not the default option" — and people "given support that best matches their needs".
Outgoing Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told the Otago Daily Times last month that "just plonking" a homeless person somewhere is "not going to lead to a sustainable outcome for them in many cases".
The latest progress report of the government’s Homelessness Action Plan says all people receiving SNGs now get "intensive case management services and navigation services".
If Harry hadn’t tried to kill himself on a Sunday night, it is not clear what support he may have been offered on the Monday morning by the state. At the very least, help was too slow coming and his path forward is still unclear.
Oranga Tamariki has responded to an official information request from the ODT saying: "Rangatahi in care shouldn’t be kicked out the door the day they turn 18 ... For rangatahi leaving care, getting into their first flat can be hard."
This is not a small problem. Under-24s comprise nearly half of the "housing deprived" population, according to the 2018 census.
Across New Zealand, 1516 young people leaving Oranga Tamariki care had a "transition worker" last year — but only 136 were given supported accommodation.
The agency admits children’s and disability systems are not "consistently joined up", leading to "inequitable outcomes for tāngata whaikaha [disabled people]".
A disability strategy is being prepared by the agency. Consultees have already flagged a need to assess young people’s disabilities better — so there are "the supports and connections in place to prevent crises".
Campaigners are rallying for more radical change — now. The youth homelessness collective Manaaki Rangatahi demands homes specifically for homeless youth and legislation that would prevent the state exiting young people to no home.
Its vision says it all: end youth homelessness.
