Rent Choice Youth is a subsidy program that is offered by the Department of Housing NSW to assist young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to transition into and maintain a tenancy in the private rental market. The subsidy works by calculating a percentage of the participants’ income (starts at 25%), which they will pay towards their rent, with Housing contributing the remaining funds. This program is available to young people aged 16-24 who are currently engaged in employment and/or education and earning less than $650/week.
As part of the program, the young person is also linked in with outreach support from the Rent Choice Youth team within Allambi Care, who assists the young person to improve their independent living skills necessary to successfully maintain a tenancy. Each young person is then supported by their Caseworker to work towards their goals, particularly surrounding obtaining stable housing, education, employment, mental health, financial stability, and family and community connection. The goal of the program is to wrap the young person in holistic supports to ensure that they are able to maintain their tenancy independently.
Although the Rent Choice Youth (RCY) team within Allambi is still only small and in its early stages, the team have been able to develop strong relationships with developers and Real Estate Agents within the community, which has resulted in nomination rights for several unit blocks, with over 50 bedrooms. The RCY team have been working alongside SIL and Foster Care to support young people, not only within the community, but also within our Out of Home Care system, to obtain stable housing within the private market. Through this collaboration of departments, we are able to offer a more streamlined process for out of home care leavers to transition into the private market and sustain their tenancies.
To further support our young people who are recipients of the RCY program, Allambi are now able to offer and facilitate the Rent It Keep It course. The RCY and SIL teams worked together to develop the program and tailored it to better suit the young people we work with. Rent It Keep It runs bi-monthly and teaches young people how to search, apply and maintain a property, and educates them about their rights and responsibilities as a tenant. On the 1st of June we ran the Rent It Keep It at Allambi head office, which had one of the biggest turnouts so far with 15 young people attending.
The RCY team has had too many success stories through the program to count, however there are two particular stories that stand out. Both of these young people are active within their community, presenting at employment expos and being involved with the Newcastle Poverty Action Alliance, and they were even invited to participate in interviews with DCJ media to discuss their success. Both these young people worked really hard throughout the program and achieved their goals of enrolling in and completing TAFE, with one of them following her goal of becoming a youth worker.
