Youth homelessness in South-Eastern South Australia: A case study of Mount Gambier

Mount Gambier is South Australia's largest regional city with a population approaching 30,000 people. Located approximately 400 km from Adelaide in the South Eastern part of South Australia, the city is the major commercial hub for several primary industries including logging and wood-chipping, market-gardening and dairy production. Its proximity to southern Victoria and the Limestone Coast have also made it a popular tourist destination as well as a base for large Interstate transport and farm equipment companies. Despite its many advantages, Mount Gambier nonetheless shares many of the same challenges as other regional towns and cities. With a smaller population and income base than Metropolitan Adelaide, the city has only a relatively limited range of services to address problems of significant social disadvantage, particularly amongst young people under the age of 18 requiring housing or placements in out-of-home care. In this paper, we summarise the findings from a recent focus-group study involving service agencies, Government workers and homeless young people that investigated the nature, causes and extent of youth homelessness in the Mount Gambier region.