2015-08-18
I recently met with the Family Access Network (FAN), based in Box Hill, an amazing organisation which works with homeless young people across the east of Melbourne.
FAN has been working in the community since 1981, providing a range of services for young people and young families and their children who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. It focuses on homeless support services including transitional support and private rental brokerage, children's programs focusing on the early years, a same-sex-attracted, transgender and intersex young people program, a housing establishment fund, a homeless youth dual diagnosis initiative, life skills and volunteer programs, and an equity support program.
The Family Access Network's mission is to provide support in the form of access to accommodation, therapeutic interventions, developing resources and providing social skill development opportunities for at-risk young people and to engage in high-quality research while conducting in-house research on best practice and innovation. It is to be commended for the work it does with young people at risk of homelessness or who are experiencing homelessness.
FAN's vision is underpinned by a commitment to housing as a basic human right, and I could not agree more. It highlights a key issue in the east of Melbourne, which is the lack of public housing. Because of the lack of public housing we are seeing people spend more time in transitional housing, and rather than being able to transition out of that housing they are living in transitional arrangements for more than 12 months.