Three years ago, the idea of being a home owner felt like an impossible dream for April Young.
She was 16 and had been forced into homelessness.
Now, the 19-year-old trans woman, from Albany, Western Australia, starts her mornings with a coffee made in her own kitchen, in the home she bought eight weeks ago.
She said her parents were very religious and hadn't been able to accept that she was questioning her sexuality and gender identity.
"I had to leave them by physically leaving them and living elsewhere, or I wasn't going to survive my mental state," she said.
Ms Young said her parents wanted to take her to conversion therapy — a pseudoscience practice that is notorious for the psychological damage it inflicts on LGBTQIA+ people who undergo it.
"I had to completely cut [my parents] out of my life … Only then was the point where I could accept myself as being trans."
Far from alone
Ms Young's situation is far from rare. Australian research shows one in five transgender people will experience homelessness at some stage in their life, often due to family rejection.
After periods of couch surfing, Ms Young found herself on the doorstep of a youth support centre in Albany called Young House.
It's a place she said saved her life and later inspired her chosen surname.
Young House provides crisis accommodation for people aged 15 to 25, for up to three months at a time and teaches independent living skills.
"I think I learned almost everything I know today through Young House," she said.
"They definitely gave me confidence in myself."
Money smarts
The skills she learnt at the centre, combined with her formidable work ethic, helped her save a house deposit.
"I saved up lots of money from my minimum wage jobs … I'm strangely good with money," she said.
"During high school, I was doing full-time school, Monday to Friday, but then after that, I would be at work at Hungry Jack's from 3.30pm 'till 11pm, every single day."
Those long hours paid off and couch surfing and riding her bicycle everywhere meant her overheads were low, which allowed her to put away as much of her earnings as possible.
Ms Young saved more than $40,000, giving her a $31,000 house deposit, with some to spare, and paid $230,000 for her two bedroom, one bathroom unit.
"I've had almost all my stress from my entire life relieved off me in the last three weeks," she said.
"It is such a strange feeling … You don't realise how stressed you are until it disappears from your entire being."
A place to learn independence
Retired local police superintendent Ian Clarke helps run Young House and is a firm believer in early intervention.
"With a lot of young people, if we give them a good grounding … we can make a huge difference to them in the future," he said.
"I think the importance of investment in the youth cannot be understated."
Mr Clarke said many of the people who come to Young House were never given the chance to learn the life skills most people take for granted.
"We effectively start from the ground up, and try to do what we can to rebuild them as much as we possibly can," he said.
"We're talking as simple as basic human healthcare, like brushing your teeth, basic cleanliness, homemaker skills … going for a job interview, cooking skills."
At the moment, Young House can only offer three months' accommodation at a time — something Ian Clarke would like to change.
"With eight beds we have a continual turnover of young people coming through, which is tough and it's really tough for the youth workers when we see them going out the door," he said.
Despite finding the time limit on Young House's accommodation stressful, April Young is grateful for the help she received and hopes her story helps others.
"A year ago, I couldn't have believed that I would be here now … I can't say it was easy, but life isn't easy," she said.
"Keep going. It's not that life gets easier, it's that you just get better at managing it."
