Ending youth homelessness: The Melbourne project transforming the lives of young women

Tucked away in an unassuming heritage-listed building in the inner Melbourne suburb of St Kilda is a pioneering project aiming to end youth homelessness. The ‘Cocoon’ project is a housing program that supports young women who are leaving out-of-home care or experiencing homelessness, providing a home to recover, develop living skills and prepare for long-term housing. Youth homelessness charity Bridge It leads the flagship project with community housing provider HousingFirst, which owns the St Kilda building.  While HousingFirst brings the building, Bridge It provides the support, including access to lived-experience peer mentoring, social worker support, cooking groups, and pathways into long term housing and employment. Bridge It founder and chief executive Carla Raynes, who has worked in the homelessness sector in Australia and the UK for almost 20 years, said that the need for longer-term and more intensive support services like the cocoon project was massive.  “In lots of ways, we try to mimic what a family might do if they were fortunate enough to have one and a huge part of that is that we don’t give up on our young people,” Ms Raynes told realestate.com.au.   “To move the dial on youth homelessness, we need to move the dial on what we’re currently doing.” The project has been running for two years and has supported 11 young women in need, who have all moved into long-term housing.  Bridge It community members walking through the Melbourne residence. Picture: Bridge ItIt’s a success story in the homelessness space, where vulnerable teenagers can end up back in crisis centres, youth refuges or on the streets when things don’t go to plan. HousingFirst chief executive Clive Bowden said partnering with Bridge It on the project had been a success. “We love the work that Bridge It is doing and seeing the positive outcomes that they’re having on youth homelessness,” Mr Bowden said.  “Generally, we haven’t really housed young people, but this has been an exception. “There are a lot of issues for people under 18 that are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds who want safe and secure housing, but it’s part of our role to provide a roof over everyone’s heads, so we see this as incredibly important.”  Businesses lend a hand  While the project has proven to be innovative, Bridge It and HousingFirst had been in need of their own help to expand the service.  There are 12 studio apartments being refurbished in the Melbourne ‘cocoon’ building. Picture: Bridge ItHousingFirst had previously refurbished seven of the 19 studio apartments in the building but the organisations didn’t have the funding or resources to refurbish the outstanding units on their own. However, the property industry has rallied around this special project to help it finish the refurbishments and support even more young people in the future.  ASX-listed property group Mirvac has come on board to lead the refurbishment works, as well as Dulux, Interface, Caroma and other brands to contribute materials and services to the project. Housing All Australians co-founder Robert Padolin said their aim was to create business-led actions to deliver housing solutions for Australians in need. “One of our pillars is using existing infrastructure that’s sitting vacant as a short-term solution to our housing crisis,” he said.  “We’re getting the whole property ecosystem to contribute their bit to try and make the cocoon happen. “We can assemble the private sector to help charities and services like Bridge It because this country needs the private sector to stand up and make a difference.” Elysa Anderson, general manager residential Victoria and Western Australia at Mirvac, said they were proud to partner with Housing All Australians and Bridge It to refurbish the existing studio apartments. Richard Branson, Igniting Change founder Jane Tewson and entrepreneur Radek Sali with Carla Reynes and members of the Bridge It team at the Melbourne residence this year. Picture: Virgin/LinkedIn“Owned by Housing First, this project combines Mirvac’s commitment to social sustainability with HAA’s focus on utilising empty buildings as a short-term response to Australia’s housing crisis,” Ms Anderson said.  “Our collective objective is to assist Bridge It with providing young people exiting out-of-home care with a new home, a community, and the support to thrive. “We are very grateful to our valued suppliers and trades for their contribution to the project and we hope that this is the first of many projects that will help provide shelter for vulnerable people in our community.” Mirvac is expected to complete the refurbishments and hand over the keys to the newly refurbished studio apartments in September this year.  The ‘cocoon’ studio apartments provide a safe and comfortable space to get back on their feet. Picture: Bridge ItNever been a greater need It comes as 23% of all people experiencing homelessness were aged from 12 to 24 years in Australia, according to the latest census figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Almost 122,500 were estimated to be experiencing homelessness during the 2021 census. When it comes to young people accessing homelessness services, more than 38,000 young people aged 15-24 years presented alone to a homelessness service in 2022-23, according to the Australian department of social services.Close to half of those young people experienced mental ill-health and over one third had experienced family and domestic violence. Ms Raynes said homelessness and supported housing services were dramatically underfunded right across the country. The Melbourne residence also has communal living spaces for its residents. Picture: Bridge It“I would say the system is fundamentally broken… and the sector is focused on government funding predominantly and shorter-term interventions normally,” she said. Ms Raynes said it had been quite exciting to get the St Kilda cocoon project off the ground without government funding by sourcing support from big names such as Richard Branson and businesses including Mecca, AMP and ANZ. “I call this radical collaboration and I’ve never seen anything like this in all my time working in homelessness in Australia and the UK,” she said.  “The dream is to scale cocoons across the whole country, so there’s cocoons across every state in Australia.  “I believe if we had cocoons across Australia, then I think we could actually end youth homelessness.”