In order to thrive, children and young people need stable, secure, permanent housing. I will present findings from a qualitative research project interviewing young people about their experiences with homelessness when they were younger than 25 years old, in Aotearoa New Zealand. We asked them about their general experiences, access to services, disruption of schooling and relationships, impacts on wellbeing, and their aspirations for housing. Initial findings indicate that young people experienced particular barriers to housing because of their young age, compounding the common experience of discrimination by ethnicity. Participants expressed that experiencing homelessness had profound and irreversible impacts to their health and wellbeing. A clear theme throughout the interviews so far is that the best support came from friends and family. Participants expressed a desire for the system to better support young people, but that this required something of a ‘leap of faith’ from services to trust them. Finally receiving stable and secure housing was lifechanging for the participants, and many expressed being happy for somewhere safe to raise their children. This qualitative study was developed in partnership with community housing providers, based on their observation of an increasing population of children and young people experiencing homelessness. The findings are presented through a strength-based lens, in order to advocate for a system that better supports young people. This research project, supplemented by a parallel analysis in administrative data will provide a picture of how the housing system can better support young people to have a place to call home.

Three Key Learnings:
1. Experiencing homelessness at a young age can have profound impacts to mental health and wellbeing, particularly one’s ontological security and identity formation.
2. Intergenerational trauma is a driver of homelessness and housing insecurity for young people.
3. Many participants reported that the trust of one key person was a turning point in their stories, both for gaining stable housing, and for their mental health.