As in other nations, the Tasmanian Government introduced travel and lockdown restrictions to help address the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous measures have also been introduced to respond to the needs of homeless or housing insecure people. However, what about homeless children and youth? These young people are hard to identify and are less likely to receive official assistance due to their age, transience and non-involvement with child protection services. This report presents findings and recommendations from a project to learn more about this issue, and adds to the growing evidence on the frontline experiences of community-based organisations working with vulnerable cohorts during the pandemic. The first stage of the project focused on the time period of March-June 2020 and the immediate impacts of COVID-19 restrictions. It involved interviews with 24 outreach and Specialist Homeless Services workers, and the findings were presented in an interim paper. A second round of interviews was undertaken in October/November, and focussed on COVID-19 response preparedness and what is most needed to these children during the post-COVID-19 recovery. This final report shows the range of impacts of COVID-19 on unaccompanied homelessness children and on the practice of support workers themselves.
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