A major contributing factor is the high rate of teenage pregnancy in Wodonga in particular, a fact highlighted by two key organisations working in the field.

Both Junction Support Services and the Queen Elizabeth Centre have pinpointed the trend as a part of the overall trend impacting on the ever-increasing rate of homelessness.

Junction has spent 28 years helping disadvantaged people across the North East who are affected by a whole range of issues including poverty, family violence and homelessness.

The centre’s insight to the issue – it is based in Melbourne though operates an outreach service for the Hume region – is from its key work in helping support parents of children aged up to four years.

While often these involve sleeping problems, the issues targeted often can involve more complex issues relating to behavioural problems.

The centre works in partnership with Junction on several programs in the region.

Its Wodonga-based manager said Queen Elizabeth Centre agreed also that family violence too was “a significant contributing factor to homelessness in the region.

“There is a high rate of teenage pregnancy in Wodonga and often young women are not in stable relationships,” Shirley Pilkington said.

“Accommodation is an issue, there may be some problems at home, there may be family violence and associated anxiety.”

Ms Pilkington said most of the centre’s young parent clients were determined to give their children “a better environment and life, and the centre supports them to do that”.

That is the conclusion too of Junction’s youth services manager, Katharine Hodgens.

“Generally speaking, we’re not talking about drug issues with the young parents we are seeing,” she said.

“These are parents who are trying to do the right thing to protect their children.”

But it is usually only through word-of-mouth that they find out about the support available through a service such as Junction.

“People who are experiencing homelessness as young parents access the service and then they’re telling their friends about it,” Ms Hodgens said.

But it is not also as easy as it sounds to seek help, with fear of the unknown playing a key role in some cases where a young mother is extremely reluctant to come forward.

Ms Hodgens said that was especially the case in matters of domestic violence, but it could just as easily relate to a lack of confidence.

“There’s a lot of young women who have never heard about the agency and they’re in fear of losing their children to child protection,” she said.

“You do get people who just don’t know where to start. It’s very overwhelming.”

Go inside our homelessness special feature