No home, no justice? The legal needs of homeless people (2005) Cite this report

Care and protection

Interviews for this study indicated that care and protection issues were a problem for many homeless people. Care and protection matters concern the intervention of the State government through the Department of Community Services (DoCS) into the lives of children who are at risk of abuse or neglect.¹⁴ Some families who are homeless were reported to be afraid that DoCS would remove their child if they admit that they are homeless.¹⁵ Furthermore, due to mandatory reporting obligations for DoCS, parents also reported being afraid of approaching services (including SAAP services) with their children, for fear that their children will be removed by DoCS. A single mother told researchers in one study:

I’ve already been involved with Family Services and was frightened to admit I was homeless. They might separate us, and send my son to a shelter, or take the younger children into care. I didnt know what to do. It was terrible. I felt like such a failure to my kids.¹⁶

A number of homeless people consulted in this study had children who were already in the care of DoCS. One participant described the difficulties she encountered in trying to set up suitable accommodation so she could have her children returned to her:

I had DoCS involved. I had family services involved. We had a meeting and they all, Department of Housing and everything, they all put references in to have me priority-housed. This went on for about six months. Then they told me there was nothing available. At that time, I told them that I’d take anything. One room even, just so that I had somewhere for me and the kids to sleep. They told me that there was nothing available.¹⁸

While this study did not examine care and protection issues in detail, in the literature, homeless children and young people are reported to often have a history of interaction with DoCS. Young people may have already been in care prior to becoming homeless, or they might come into contact with DoCS after they become homelessness.¹⁹ The prevalence of care and protection issues was raised in the 1989 Burdekin report: a study commissioned for the report, which documented the experiences of 100 homeless children in Queensland and NSW, found that 29 per cent of children interviewed had been the subjects of a child welfare report.²⁰ The report also found that Aboriginal children nationally are over-represented in child welfare.²¹

Two young people interviewed for this study also had children who were in the care of DoCS. One had also been under DoCS care herself when she found out that she was pregnant:

He’s with DoCS because I had him when I was 16. I was underneath DoCS at the time … I ended up having a mental breakdown. There was only three choices I had—give my son to my mother, give my son to my uncle or hand him over to DoCS. I wasn’t going to give him to my mum because she was an alcoholic and was abusive. My uncle was the father. So, the only other choice I had was to give him to DoCS. I signed the papers and that.²²