Albury Project partners and MP Justin Clancy plead with NSW Government to extend funding in budget

Albury MP Justin Clancy now holds "serious concerns" The Albury Project is set to be "de-funded" when the state budget is handed down on September 19.

The pilot project, which has been successfully running at Albury, Murray and James Fallon high schools since 2019, has delivered life-changing homelessness and mental health supports for at-risk youth.

Indeed one school principal recently described The Albury Project as his "proudest achievement" for students and the community in his long and respected career.

But Mr Clancy, who raised the issue in Parliament in August and said he had provided the minister for homelessness and youth, Rose Jackson, with detailed data on the project's success, has yet to receive a response on the funding uncertainty.

And he said he feared the minister's silence did not bode well.

"The fact that the shutters have gone down is a concern," Mr Clancy told The Border Mail on Thursday.

"Funding for The Albury Project runs out at the end of this year, which would be a travesty given the minister's words on fighting homelessness, and the need for government 'to be more creative'."

Mr Clancy pointed out the funding (provided by the previous state government) "has a demonstrated positive impact on the prevention of homelessness among our youth through early identification of signpost issues before they develop into a young person leaving home with nowhere to go".

Meanwhile the lead agency for the project, Yes Unlimited, has implored Ms Jackson to "ensure our community does not lose this vital service and the momentum we have gathered locally".

Yes CEO Di Glover said one of The Albury Project's strengths "is that it is a relatively low-cost approach (less than $500,000 per annum) that mobilises other systems, such as schools and mental health services, to take on the challenge of preventing youth homelessness".

It's a particularly critical investment when you consider the much higher costs of young people entering crisis services at the other end - whether that be through the homelessness system, hospital or mental health facilities, she added.

Ms Glover said achieving outcomes for young people experiencing homelessness in the current climate was an "increasingly disheartening task".

"Albury has a rental vacancy rate that is consistently below 0.6 per cent, public housing wait-list times exceed five years ... and annual surveys show about 5.2 per cent of public high school students are at risk of homelessness," she outlined in a letter to Ms Jackson.

"If this 'at risk' cohort is ignored, they will be left to enter an incredibly hostile housing market and an over-stretched homelessness system devoid of appropriate exit options."

And yet all early indications are that the Albury Project has been successful in identifying youth at risk early and addressing issues while they are still engaged at school - and before it's too late, Ms Glover outlined.

"This model is more efficient, it is underpinned by systemic co-ordination, and most importantly keeps young people out of the homelessness system," she said.

"With all the homelessness metrics looking bleaker, the Albury Project is a beacon of light, and our community simply cannot afford to lose the momentum we have built over the last five years."

Mr Clancy said he was disappointed by Ms Jackson's continued silence on supporting a grassroots initiative that sees "schools, services and the community all working in a co-ordinated matter to identify and support young people at risk of homelessness".

"I have sought to bring the minister's attention to these early promising results from a project, which has really brought together a number of youth, mental health and crisis housing organisations together in the community."

In the past 4 years almost 10,000 surveys have been completed, with project partners pro-actively looking for young people at risk of homelessness, school disengagement or mental health issues.

Mr Clancy said The Albury Project should be expanded, not scrapped while all three high school principals have publicly lauded its success.

"We own the Albury Project ... it is not just another program," they have stated collectively.

"Together we faced up to the challenge that things were not working well enough for our young people, and we have actively sought to change this, to find a better way."