If that’s not shocking enough, the number of local teenagers living a ‘homeless’ existence is growing.

That’s according to Coffs Harbour Youth Refuge manager Regina Saunders.

She said that while the refuge was designed to cope with 16 and 17-year-old boys and girls who were homeless, increasingly more and more 14 and 15-year-olds were accessing the service.

“The kids who are leaving home, or who are being forced out of their homes, are getting younger and younger,” Regina said.

“The challenge for the refuge is accommodating these young kids. The six beds we have are usually full, and the two additional beds allocated to emergency situations are rarely empty.”

Regina was responding to a new report, which shows that if you live in Coffs Harbour you have a significantly higher chance of being without somewhere safe or secure to sleep than if you live in Sydney.

It was compiled by the New South Wales Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Social Issues inquiry into homelessness and low-cost accommodation.

Based on statistics from the 2006 census, the inquiry found a rate of homelessness in Coffs Harbour was almost 50 per cent higher than in Greater Sydney. There the rate is 39 homeless people per 10,000 residents. In Coffs Harbour its 61 people sleeping rough per 10,000 residents.

The plight of the homeless in Coffs Harbour is shared by other North Coast cities such as Port Macquarie, Lismore and Tweed Heads, and is only surpassed in the region by the towns of Casino and Kempsey, where the official homeless rate is 64 per 10,000 residents.

Regina said she was surprised to find the level of homelessness was so much higher in Coffs Harbour than in Sydney.

She wasn’t surprised, however, to find that about 30 per cent of all people who were homeless were under 18 years of age.

“It really is an issue that we as a community and as parents need to address,” she said.