Down and out on the Glitter Strip
HOMELESS teenagers on the Gold Coast are living a harrowing life, bedding down in squalor in a Glitter Strip underworld most residents will never see.
Tragically, for many it’s better than living at home.
Dirty mattresses, old tents and drums used for makeshift fireplaces in dank conditions are the norm, in what police have tagged “flop houses”.
The Bulletin visited a flop house this week and saw firsthand the harsh conditions young people have opted for after fleeing homes where domestic violence and child abuse have gone hand-in-hand.
For many it is safer to live on the streets than at home.
For the police who are working with these young people, the reasons aren’t always clear cut.
Homelessness takes many forms. Some are transient, shifting between home, friend’s couches and flop houses. Others live on the streets. Some run from home in search of a norules environment, going home when they’ve had their fill.
Detective Inspector Marc Hogan said police had noticed an increase in homeless youth on Gold Coast streets
“What we’ve noticed in our high level responding to domestic and family violence is that DV in the family environment is extremely important in terms of children progressing into juvenile crime and being victims, which includes homelessness,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of success in the DV area, but we can no longer separate domestic and family violence and child abuse. If you’ve got one, you’ve generally got the other.”
He said it wasn’t cut and dried when it came to juvenile offending and homelessness.
“There’s two systems – the juvenile justice process, where children are involved in committing crime, they get dealt with in that system.
“Then you have the social child protection side of it, which is involved in identifying harm and reducing and dealing with high risk environments and that’s where the DV comes in.
“A lot of the types of offences you see these young people commit are opportunistic, are really for not much benefit, for example a lot of juveniles get involved in stealing, looking for credit cards to use Paypass, doing sneak breaks for the offloadable stuff like mobile phones, shoes, clothing, electronics.
“There are a lot of children who need a little bit of help, to be given a safe environment and they are OK.
“Then there are juveniles who do commit serious criminal offences and we do our best to make sure they’re held to account as well.
“There are kids who choose to be criminal offenders and we will deal with those.
“It is really hard work. You’re making decisions that are really important for these kids.”
Insp Hogan said the days when police were just chasing criminals and locking up bad guys were gone. While officers had a responsibility to make people accountable for crimes they committed, it was no longer as clear cut as that.
“Where we discover people who are really vulnerable, there is an onus on us to help those people,’’ he said.
“We’ve been involved with the Department of Communities for some time around trying to scope the problem itself and get an understanding of what the causation of children who seem to be moving into more high risk environments.
“The main aim for us is to identify children at risk and wrap services around them so that we can make them as safe as possible.
“These issues are very complex and it’s not just a policing issue and we recognise that. We are determined to make a difference for these children.’’