Civil construction apprentice Blake Bishop works hard to cover the cost of his private rental.
Having his own space is a relief for the 18-year-old who bounced from foster care to couch surfing and eventually landed in a homeless shelter.
"They say that we live in a great country, but here I am working 50-plus-hour weeks earning minimum wage to not have housing," he said.
"At one stage, I'd work those hours and only bring [$500 to] 600 bucks in a week and then have to spend that money on food, fuel, everything else to get to work, and then not have anything left over for rent.
"I have to catch a lift into work with another fella due to I can't afford to run my car, but paying my rent I'm able to keep on top of now."
About one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teenagers aged between 15 and 19, like Blake, were worried about having a safe place to stay, according to a new survey by Mission Australia.
Among the wider population of that age cohort that number was closer to one in 10.
Distress about environment top of list
The Christian homelessness charity surveyed 18,800 teenagers across the country for its latest youth snapshot.
It found 53 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds were working, 41 per cent said they faced school challenges and 29 per cent reported high levels of psychological distress.
The number of teenagers who felt positive about the future dropped from 55 per cent in 2020 to just 50 per cent this year.
Mission Australia chief executive Sharon Callister said more than half the teenagers questioned said the environment and climate change were among their top concerns, up from 38 per cent last year and 30 per cent in 2020.
"They mentioned things like catastrophic flooding events, other major climate events, bushfires — and all of those things really combined to push that up to be the top priority of the issues," Ms Callister said.
"Every single state and territory rated that as the number-one issue — and that didn't vary too much, whether it was metropolitan, rural, or remote areas."
Mental health concerns worsened by COVID
The survey also identified equity and discrimination as a key issue, particularly discrimination over gender, race and mental health.
More than one-third said they were concerned about mental health.
Teenager Layla Hodges said school was a source of worry for her.
"After COVID and we went back to school, I was finding it really hard to just stay concentrated," she said.
"No-one quite understands this generation. When the pandemic hit, that was very, very difficult."
The Tasmanian 16-year-old lives with her sister after finding herself unable to live with her mother.
While 49 per cent of those questioned said they had very good relationships with their family, just over a quarter said those relationships were, at best, fair.
Ms Callister said this year's survey was different because it asked the teenagers what they thought could help address the issues they were worried about.
"They talked about schools needing to increase the talk about mental health and welfare to make it easier to access such services that provide support and to make it OK to do that," she said.
For Layla, finding her own space has improved her mental health and changed her life.
"I'm just much more relaxed and less heightened," she said.
"I'm not in flight-or-fight [mode] all the time and I'm not in survival mode," she said.
