Chelsea Mitchell has a roof over her head, but she is still considered homeless.
Living in her mother's overcrowded home in a town camp in Alice Springs with her two-year-old daughter, the 18 year-old Western Arrernte woman describes her situation as dire.
"There's not enough space," she said.
"It's really stressful. Overcrowding is really having an impact on me and my baby and also [on] my mum."
There are sometimes up to 11 people living at Ms Mitchell's mother's four-bedroom, decades-old home.
She said she especially worries about the impact on her daughter, who was recently diagnosed with autism.
"Just having a safe space for my daughter. She has autism and does have sensory issues [with] overcrowding. She doesn't like too many people in her face," she said.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows there are more than 45,000 people under 25 in Australia who are experiencing homelessness, which includes people living in "severely crowded dwellings".
Some other surveys indicate the number is much higher.
Ms Mitchell says she does not expect her situation to change in the near future.
Despite working two jobs in town, she is worried it could take years before she and her daughter will be able to have a home.
Local public housing waitlists are years long and not keeping up with demand, while prices at are a 12-year high in the local rental market.
"It's getting ridiculous now … Hearing [of] four-to-five-year waits doesn't really give me hope," she said.
Rates of homelessness slowing, but not in all areas
While the ABS data show the rate of young people aged 12-24 years experiencing homelessness has slightly dropped, the rate of young women living in homeless situations has increased.
Kamilaroi woman Imogen Johnstone was one of those young women who became homeless, after fleeing an abusive relationship and dealing with drug addiction in the regional Victorian town of Echuca.
"I was always worried about my safety," she said.
"It's a huge thing, especially as a young woman going through that and being on the streets."
Without a refuge for young people where she was living, Ms Johnstone moved to Melbourne, where she found supported accommodation.
Now aged 23 and back on her feet, she said without the services she had accessed, she would not be in the stable housing situation she was now in.
She said she was worried about the lack of services in regional settings, specifically for young people.
"If I didn't have that support, in the time when I needed it most, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today," she said.
Right support can be life-changing
On Queensland's Gold Coast, 19-year-old Damon Walker knows that there are workable solutions to help people who, like himself, were sleeping in car parks.
"It makes you feel a little bit upset and lost and confused, and it's just sort of you don't know where to turn next," he said.
After managing to find crisis accommodation for a short-term stay, Mr Walker was referred to a "youth foyer" — a housing model that provides young people with housing, charging them 25 per cent of their income from a job or welfare payments.
Mr Walker said his time living at the Gold Coast centre had improved his situation to a point he once thought impossible.
"I'm currently saving for my first house," he said.
"When I was living in my car, it probably wasn't something that I thought would be possible in the near future."
Future grim without more support, services say
Organisations working to end youth homelessness are concerned about the current state of the problem.
Jemma Wood has been working for more than two decades to try to get young people out of homelessness.
She said the number of available services were not enough, including where she lives in Darwin, where there is just one crisis centre for young people.
As Anglicare NT's executive manager for homelessness and social inclusion, Ms Wood wants to see a national plan on the issue and more crisis support as well as longer-term support.
"Both locally and nationally … there are too many children and young people [who] don't have a safe place to live on any given night," she said.
Ms Wood said there was also a misconception about the different kinds of homelessness that existed.
"It doesn't just mean people sleeping on the streets or outside," she said.
"It's also young people [who] are couch surfing or living in overcrowded, crowded dwellings or don't have somewhere safe to sleep."
In Queensland, there are only two operational youth foyers like the one that supports Mr Walker, with a third being built in Townsville.
Across the country, there are 17.
Community Housing Limited (CHL), which operates the Gold Coast youth foyer, wants more to be built.
The organisation's managing director, Steve Bevington, said a new federal proposal — which is yet to pass parliament — would be a starting point, but overall remained inadequate to address the need.
"The Commonwealth government has a goal to develop 30,000 units over the next five years or so, or at least contract them during that period," he said.
"That is a drop in the ocean."
Mr Bevington said that, without urgent action, the situation across the country would become a deepening crisis.
"Unless there is a collective plan to work on all aspects of the reasons why there's not enough housing being built … It's going to get worse," he said.
