A shocking report has revealed the alarming number of homeless children dying on Australian streets each year, but frontline workers are not surprised, admitting it happens ‘all the time’. 

Queensland’s Child Death Review Board said kids were being lost across a residential care system that has ‘forgotten how to care’.

An example reported by Daily Mail Australia was of a young boy who lived out of a cardboard box with no food or clean clothes before dying on Queensland’s streets.

Karyn Walsh is the Chief Executive Officer of Micah Projects, a not-for-profit organisation that provides a range of support and advocacy services to individuals and families in Brisbane.

Ms Walsh said the example of the boy dying in the Queensland streets was not only tragic but a more common problem than most Australians realise.

‘Unfortunately, these things happen all the time,’ Ms Walsh told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Children have very traumatic lives when they’re homeless, and we need to be paying attention, and learning, to situations where there’s premature child death.

‘There are kids that are dying because of poverty and homelessness because they’ve got no secure housing. Getting better housing for young people is critical.’

Kim McLoughry, of Regional Youth Support Services, says domestic violence is what puts most kids on the streets 

A young boy lived in a cardboard box before dying on the streets. His story is not unique, frontline workers say (stock image)

The Queensland child’s death was among 70 identified in the Child Death Review Board’s annual report that Greens MP Max Chandler said showed the system was ‘completely broken’.

‘This should not be happening in a wealthy country like Australia,’ Mr Chandler said.

‘Stories like this boy’s are not unique, and they are a result of a completely broken housing, homelessness and child support system.’

The biggest cause of child homelessness across the country appeared to be domestic violence.

The Western Australia Ombudsman revealed that the percentage of investigable child death reviews associated with domestic violence in WA for the period of June 30, 2009 to June 30, 2024 was 73 per cent.

The Queensland boy had been exposed to domestic violence and abuse and was exploited by adults.

Kim McLoughry is the Chief Executive Officer of Regional Youth Support Services on the NSW Central Coast.

She’s been working with disadvantaged youths for more than 30 years, and she told Daily Mail Australia that government funding was a big problem.

The main cause of homelessness is domestic and family violence, housing instability and methamphetamine use according to a new report (pictured, tents in Brisbane)

‘We’re seeing homeless young people every day with our service which is really sad,’ she said.

‘Ten years ago we used to have 15 transitional units. So, if a young person was in trouble we could put them in short-term transition with the intention of getting them through to independent living and finished school.

‘Today, very sadly, we have one transitional unit for accommodation to support kids.’

Link2home is the NSW homelessness information and referral telephone service.

Figures released to NSW parliament last August revealed the average call waiting times to Link2Home had blown out from seven minutes and 10 seconds to 38 minutes and 48 seconds.

The number of calls to Link2home from 2023 to 2024 had soared from 54,777 to 86,842 – a 59 per cent increase.

‘Link2Home is definitely overwhelmed, which would be an understatement at the moment,’ Ms McLoughry said.

‘We’ve had experiences where we’ve been told that there are no places for young people needing help with Link2Home.’

Karyn Walsh says once kids become homeless it’s very hard for them to get out of their situation

Ms McLoughry said it was frustrating to see young homeless people not getting a great response because government services were under resourced when it came to child protection.

‘I’ve worked in my agency for more than 30 years and I have not seen a single kid commit suicide who has had support from our service,’ she said.

To this day, the most tragic child death Ms McLoughry had witnessed was the 2011 murder of two-year-old Tanilla Warrick-Deaves who was bashed to death by her mother’s partner Warren Ross.

‘That could absolutely happen again today,’ Ms McLoughry said.

‘That case was well-known to several government authorities and the dogs were rescued from the house by the RSPCA but, sadly, within seven days the little toddler was found dead due to domestic violence.

‘The dogs got out, but she didn’t. It’s quite disturbing when you see a protection system for animals working better than one supposed to save our kids.’

Ms McLoughry and Ms Walsh said more government funding would make a huge difference, as young men were being overlooked when it came to domestic violence.

‘A civil and caring society is about how we treat out children. It horrifies me when you see priorities given to other areas that aren’t fundamental to Australia,’ Ms McLoughry said.

‘There’s not enough resources put into children who need protection.’

Ms McLoughry said she had a case recently where a young person wanted to get out of a domestic violence situation.

A social worker rang the father to see what was happening at home.

‘Dad was the recipient of Centrelink benefits on behalf of that child and he was also the perpetrator of crime against that child and because he said it was fine and she could come back home, she was denied access into the rent choices program,’ Ms McLoughry said.

‘Therefore, she stays locked into domestic violence.

‘Parents are getting an income benefit of the child staying at home so they will block the child from leaving even when there’s good evidence of domestic violence.’

Ms Walsh said the Commonwealth and state governments needed to prioritise child homelessness because it was hard to get out once trapped on the streets.

‘The impacts of intergenerational poverty and homelessness are a really big issue in Australia,’ Ms Walsh said.

‘The consequences are they end up in all sorts of trouble when they’re young people.

‘Child protection systems need to rethink how they work in Australia. People can’t get housing now. They’re living in motels at rates that we’ve never seen before.’