Helping young homeless find their place

A renewed spirit of collaboration was a key outcome of the Chameleon House Youth Conference, which brought more than 170 people together to discuss the issues facing young people and the best ways to tackle them.

Chameleon House Manager Nicki Kemp says the event, held at Redcliffe Leagues Club on October 4 with funds from the Commonwealth Bank, examined trauma, the impact of domestic violence on young people, drug trends, youth justice and housing.

“Everyone is just feeling this community spirit at the moment and wanting to work together for the best outcomes for clients,” Nicki says.

“It was a good cross section of community, government and non-government agencies.

“Sharing information and collaboration was a key takeaway ... and that we’re all very passionate about the young people we’re working with and the community ... how can we connect with other agencies to do that better. We all have the same goal.

“Everyone’s ready for the collaboration. There’s so much talk about change and new initiatives ... people are listening. We need more housing, that’s undeniable, but there are some initiatives that are moving in the right direction.”

It has been a busy year for Chameleon House, with Nicki stepping into the manager role about 12 months ago and growing the team from six to 11.

Samara Stokes, who has worked at Chameleon House for about six years, has taken on the team leader position.

“With that, we have been able to really structure our program a lot more and our program with our young parenting families,” Nicki says.

Chameleon House provides accommodation support; case management and goal setting; living skills; education, employment and training support; while mentoring young people and developing skills in budgeting, cooking, health and more. The organisation also connects young people with the community.

It has a youth shelter at Kippa-Ring, and five houses for young families on the Redcliffe Peninsula.

The team is involved in outreach in the community at The Space, North Lakes, on a Thursday night and also with Moreton Bay City Council public liaison officers spending time with young people who have been sleeping rough.

Nicki says outreach is an opportunity to connect them with services and support.

Chameleon House is also part of the Queensland Homelessness Information Platform (QHIP), helping individuals who phone the hotline and need assistance with housing.

“We will do an assessment with them and best connect them to other support agencies anywhere in Queensland,” Nicki says.

“On average we’ve been getting anywhere around 98 calls a month.”

Chameleon House’s shelter at Kippa-Ring has been at full occupancy throughout the year, with the exception of a day or two.

“We’ve had some really good outcomes with securing independent housing, so we’ve had quite a few of our young people and young families who have transitioned from us to independent housing, but we’re still connected with them,” she says.

Where possible, staff try to help young people reconnect with natural support networks including family.

The team is still trying to secure land for a second shelter on the Redcliffe Peninsula, with about $200,000 set aside for this purpose.

“We have committed that to the build and Ausbuild is still on board with building us a facility ... it’s just getting the land,” Nicki says.

“That’s our biggest message ... we’re still looking for land if anyone out there can help us attain it. If we can get some land or a facility where we can put our housing model and replicate this shelter that would be amazing, but also transitional housing for young people.

“There’s lots of initiatives out there ... but young people need support and they need guidance, the assistance with living skills but also the space to do that.”

In the lead-up to Christmas, Chameleon House is collecting new items for teenagers and young parenting families to go in hampers.

Follow Chameleon Youth Housing on Facebook for details