Where are the 500 beds?
22.04.26
By Professor Patrick McGorry AO, Executive Director, Orygen, Vivienne Brown, Director, Policy and Engagement, Orygen, Shorna Moore, Head of Policy, Advocacy and Government Relations, Melbourne City Mission (MCM)
In 2020, the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System said we need 500 supported accommodation places for young people. This is yet to happen – but the case for it is overwhelming.
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It’s been almost a year since Orygen and Melbourne City Mission (MCM) released Home in Mind, a report centred in the realities and experiences of young people experiencing the life-threatening combination of homelessness and mental illness and which called out the urgent systemic reform and cross government action needed to respond to this crisis. (1)
In 2025, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) published data revealing that 520 children who had been in contact with a Specialist Homelessness Service died in the decade 2012-13 to 2023-24. (2) This equates to one child death per week, with suicide sadly the leading cause.
Combined, Home in Mind and the AIHW data show the often-fatal results when mental health care for unaccompanied young people experiencing homelessness is not adequate or integrated. Unlike instances of violent crime or road trauma, suicides among homeless young people often go unnoticed – the end point of a short life most likely dominated by adverse experiences. Yet these deaths are preventable.
Amid the number of legal, policy, workforce and service solutions identified in the Home in Mind report, the one that was unequivocably positioned to deliver the greatest social, health and economic benefits and outcomes was also one of the most straightforward – provide homeless young people with safe, secure, stable and supported accommodation that fosters mental health recovery.
There is an unprecedented opportunity to provide this response. The final report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System even committed a number to it – 500 places for 500 young people. (3) 500 young people who would otherwise be bounced between refuges and emergency departments. 500 young people who would otherwise have lost almost all hope in the future that the only path they can see is one where they no longer exist. This recommendation was not merely a good policy idea – it was a moral imperative.
A cyclical crisis: youth homelessness and mental ill-health
In 2024-25 more than 11,000 young people in Victoria presented alone to a specialist homelessness service. (4) For many of these young people the experience of housing insecurity night after night brought on serious mental health issues or worsened preexisting issues. As their mental health spiralled so too did their chances of securing stable housing.
The consequences of this cycle are devastating. Young people experiencing homelessness are at a significantly higher risk of self-harm and suicide. More than half of MCM clients report suicidal ideation, self-harm, or suicide attempts in the past year. (5)
These statistics are not just numbers. They represent lives that have been, and will be, lost due to the all-too-common pathway that sees young people bounce between emergency departments and youth refuges without receiving the integrated, specialised support required in either system. That the frustration and hopelessness of navigating such a fragmented system leads to suicidal ideation and attempts is a system and social failing that we cannot allow to continue.
The case for supported accommodation
The Royal Commission’s Recommendation 25 proposed the establishment of 500 supported housing places for young people living with mental illness and experiencing unstable housing or homelessness.
Supported accommodation provides young people with more than just a place to sleep. It offers a foundation for recovery, stability, and the time and space to heal from their experiences and journey into homelessness before and when they can engage in formal mental health support.
As young people who co-led the Home in Mind report identified, providing supported accommodation is a health response not a housing response. The mental care must be integrated within these settings via inreach and co-location.
From will to action
There is widespread recognition among political leaders and policymakers of the urgent need to deliver the 500 supported accommodation places. However, since the Royal Commission’s release in 2020, the Victorian Government has passed five budgets without allocating funding or setting a timeline to deliver the 500 places.
Despite a 50 per cent surge in mental illness among young people, (6) this and other crucial recommendations of the Royal Commission such as a reformed statewide youth mental health model of care, remain in limbo. Each year, the fiscal challenges are well socialised across many stakeholders in the lead up to the budget, preparing many for the likely disappointment that with come on budget day.
This financial challenge is real – but it is not insurmountable.
In Victoria, the Royal Commission recommended the introduction of a business levy to future-proof mental health reform against the fiscal headwinds that lay ahead and ensure that there was ringfenced additional funding for mental health (over and above what was included within the centralised health budget). This would ensure that implementation of urgent priority reforms, such as the 500 supported accommodation places, wouldn’t languish due to competing budget priorities.
Significant national reforms – in housing, psychosocial disability support and youth mental health – are also being advanced by the Australian Government. These reforms provide new opportunities for bilateral engagement, co‑investment and integrated models of care, support and recovery. Leveraging these national initiatives may finally offer a viable route to delivering better mental health responses, including the long‑overdue 500 supported accommodation places for young Victorians.
A housing solution
The Australian Government’s National Housing and Infrastructure Facility – Crisis and Transitional (NHIF‑CT) provides a significant opportunity to unlock capital for youth‑focused supported accommodation. With $1 billion available and young people identified as a priority cohort, NHIF‑CT could form the capital backbone for the 500 places. A partnership mode, combining federal capital through NHIF‑CT, Victorian Government funding for the ongoing therapeutic supports, and a shared outcomes framework, could provide a sustainable and scalable financing structure. This approach would also support transparent reporting and allow both levels of government to embed the mental‑health‑centred design of the model into any partnership agreement.
Youth mental health reforms
In 2025, the Australian Government committed almost $750 million over three years to redesign youth mental health services, including upgrading 30 headspace centres into headspace plus and creating 20 new Youth Specialist Care Centres. If intentionally designed to prioritise young people with the most complex mental health needs, including those experiencing homelessness, these services could be clinical and therapeutic partners to the supported accommodation model.
Foundational supports for psychosocial needs outside of the NDIS
Parallel national reforms in psychosocial disability provide another opportunity to resource the ongoing mental health and recovery supports young people need to stabilise from both mental ill-health and psychosocial challenges such as insecure housing and homelessness. The Australian Government’s new Foundational Supports Initiative is designed to deliver early, community‑based and locally coordinated psychosocial supports for people who fall outside the NDIS. This could directly complement the supported accommodation model and augment the youth specialist care centres (including those operating in Victoria) to provide more capacity to support housing and other psychosocial needs.
A way forward
Young people cannot continue to be handballed between overstretched homelessness and mental health services that are siloed, crisis-driven and supported by overstretched staff required to work outside their areas of expertise. These young people deserve an integrated mental health and housing service response, supported by skilled staff who can deliver holistic, wrap-around care without the need to bounce between fragmented and inaccessible services.
Providing 500 young people with supported accommodation that responds to both their mental health and housing needs is an evidence-based, policy success story. It has a mandate from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, strong support from both mental health and homelessness sectors and, most importantly, the backing of those with a lived experience who understand better than anyone what would have the biggest impact on their future.
With the Australian Government committing significant investment to transform mental health and disability support systems for young people experiencing mental ill-health, and to provide housing infrastructure, now is the moment for the Victorian Government to do its part and act with urgency and ambition for those most vulnerable and at risk – ensuring this proven solution is finally delivered and 500 young people get the support they deserve to go on to lead healthy, happy and productive lives.
End notes
- Morgan R, Dobson D, Moore S, Browne V and Simondson K 2025, Home in Mind: Improving mental health support for young people experiencing homelessness, Orygen and Melbourne City Mission, Melbourne.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2025, Children with a history of specialist homelessness services support who have died, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/homelessness-services/children-history-of-shs-support-who-have-died.
- Neave M, Faulkner P and Nicholson T 2016, Royal Commission into Family Violence: Summary and recommendations, Victorian Government.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2025, Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024-25,
- Melbourne City Mission 2025, MCM’s Victorian Youth Homelessness Snapshot 2025, https://mcm.org.au/news/2025-victorian-youth-homelessness-snapshot.
- McGorry P D, Coghill D, and Berk M 2023, ‘Mental health of young Australians: dealing with a public health crisis’, Medical Journal of Australia, Sep 18;219(6):246-249. doi: 10.5694/mja2.52047. Epub 2023 Jul 23. PMID: 37483141; PMCID: PMC10952337.