People took to the streets on Wednesday in a bid to raise awareness around a growing issue plaguing the nation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mission Australia joined with residents, the Riverina Police District and other service providers for Youth Homelessness Matters Day, walking together from the Wiradjuri Track to Wagga Beach.
Riverina Police District Acting Inspector Adam White said it was important local officers attended as they do come across youth in need across Wagga.
"We do assist on occasions when there's a household issue and we do try to assist through our partners like Mission Australia, St Vincent and the Salvation Army," Inspector White said.
"So there's a number of locations that we reach out to and utilise to try and find accommodation if we need to.
"It's all about bringing notice to the community about youth homelessness, homelessness in general is an issue, and trying to address when and where we can help."
Acting Inspector White said offers come across youth struggling with homelessness usually relating to one of three issues.
"A lot of it has to do with domestic violence, mental health is a big factor, mental health and drug use, so that's what we commonly see," he said.
Mission Australia area manager Adrian Glisson said it was not only good to see services attend the walk but also local youth, as he believed it was important to hear from those affected on how services can help them.
"We wanted to bring awareness to youth homelessness here in Wagga," he said.
"We wanted to start the conversation around what is happening to young people in Wagga.
"It's been awesome, we've had services show up we were unaware were coming.
"Just having services and young people just starts the conversation ... and it's important to get young people's voices as well."
It was also an opportunity to draw attention to an issue Mr Glisson said could often fly under the radar.
"With youth homelessness, it's more unseen as opposed to other forms of homelessness within our community," he said.
"Youth homelessness tends to look like young people couch surfing, not having stable accommodation but floating between residences, it often comes with backgrounds such as domestic violence and hardship and it's really unseen within our community.
"We want to raise awareness and talk about what's happened and how we can help."