Nahla Dichak was 15 years old when family breakdown left her homeless and scrambling to find her next place to sleep.
For two years she couch surfed with distant family and friends around Melbourne, sometimes sleeping at McDonalds or outside youth homelessness services.
"It was just traumatising. Like, I don't know how to explain it," she said.
"Imagine having your work close, and finishing work, and not knowing … where you're going to go stay."
Eventually, the teenager found out about Melbourne's homelessness youth service, Front Yard, and she was linked with a case worker.
After two years of instability, they set her up with a hotel to live in. Two months after that, she was given a home.
From there, the service taught her how to support herself and live alone.
They helped her get a job, go back to uni and start doing classes.
Now, at 23, Ms Dichak said having a home had given her a place to feel safe and find time to work on other parts of her life.
But homelessness services in Victoria and Australia fear thousands of young people aren't as lucky as Ms Dichak and are missing out on the support they need.
A Melbourne City Mission report has found 63 per cent of young people in Victoria who entered the state's youth homelessness system over the past five years returned at least twice.
Of those young people, 253 re-entered the program more than four times, with significant mental health and safety concerns.
Some young homeless people returned to the entry point of homelessness services more than 10 times.
Not enough houses, not enough support
Melbourne City Mission chief executive, Vicky Sutton, said there were two key reasons young people were stuck in the system — no access to housing and not enough skill-building to help them live alone.
There were almost 42,000 people aged 15 to 24 years old seeking homelessness services in 2021.
But while young people make up more than 50 per cent of all single homeless people, they only hold 2.9 per cent of social housing.
Ms Sutton said the lack of support was "not good enough" and a wasted opportunity.
Ms Dichak's case worker, Evan Trchala, said there were countless young people who deserved housing, yet there was no space for them.
That means for every home made available, there are many more young people who have to be turned away.
"They end up going back, they go back to the starting point, or they stay where they are, and maybe go into a crisis accommodation,"Mr Trchala said.
Calls for more government funding
Late last year, the Victorian government announced $50 million for new housing projects for homeless youth as part of what is dubbed its Big Housing Build.
Last month, the federal government also announced $10 billion funding for 30,000 new social housing properties.
But while a portion was dedicated to women and children fleeing violence and a portion for front-line workers, Ms Sutton said there needed to be an allocation for youth.
"If it's not [allocated], it will not go to young people — it will perpetuate the current lack of housing that exists for young people," she said.
"Their needs are unique [from] adults. Their challenges are different to adults, and they're also not part of a women and children group."
She said the support needed to also extend to skill building once young people were given a home.
"Being a good tenant, budgeting, creating the connections into employment … continuing their education and giving them those foundational skills to successfully transition into adulthood," she said.
Organisations like Ms Sutton's are calling for more investment on both the state and federal level.
Mr Trchala said there was a need to diversify the types of programs and homes being built in the sector, so there were more ways to meet different young people's needs.
Support needed now
Both the state and federal government said they recognised the serious challenge of youth homelessness.
Victorian Housing Minister, Richard Wynne, pointed to his government's recent investment for youth housing and said it was making "significant investments to break the cycle of homelessness in Victoria".
Federal minister for Housing and Homelessness, Julie Collins, did not rule out allocating part of the government's 30,000 new social housing dwelling to youth. The new minister said she would work with both state and territory governments to decide how projects would be delivered.
She also said the Albanese government was committed to introducing a new National Housing and Homeless Plan, which would include the challenge of homeless youth.
But Ms Sutton said homeless youth could not wait any longer.
"The longer they spend in the homelessness system, the more they're exposed to safety concerns and serious mental health challenges," she said.
"What needs to change in the service system to make their experience of homelessness as brief as possible … that means that they can achieve the same opportunities that we want for our own kids," Ms Sutton said.
For Ms Dichak, she said the support she had been given helped her to "just be a young person" and chase her dreams.
She has been able to work casually in warehouse jobs while building her YouTube channel, Nhala Dean, where she hopes to one day tell her story.
"I avoided a lot of the stuff, like the terrible stuff people my age were doing, because I had a house," she said.
"If I never got that phone call, I could be still on the waiting lists right now."
