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 paper presents initial findings from a project to learn more about this issue. It highlights key issues and immediate recommendations from interviews conducted in March-June with 24 outreach and Specialist Homeless Services workers in Tasmania. The workers discussed the children's increased vulnerabilities and disruptions, reduced access to trusted adults, difficulty in accessing and maintaining safe accommodation, decreased optimism and mental health, decreased access to and engagement in school, and struggles to appropriately manage increased welfare benefits.
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