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Foyer opens path to security

Just off bustling Oxford Street in Leederville and set behind glass sliding doors lies the place that changed the lives of Rikeisha Voss, Bronwyn Hille and Emily King.

Inside is Foyer Oxford, a multimillion-dollar youth accommodation service, the biggest in Australia.

Next week, nine months after it opened, it will be full - with 98 at risk young people, including 24 young parents, given a chance of a secure home and help to improve their lives.

Filling the self-contained apartments gradually was designed to build up the sense of a supportive community, manager Jethro Sercombe said.

That community is diverse, roughly equal numbers of men and women aged 16 to 25, with about one-third who come from State care. All sign a two-year lease, agreeing to pay rent and meet obligations including to work or study.

Foyer Oxford is the first in WA and one of about 1000 Foyers globally, based on the concept of helping young homeless people through transitional housing and access to support and opportunities.

Mr Sercombe said its big scale allowed it to combine services such as counselling, medical care, education, training, employment and classes on everything from parenting to financial management and cooking. It has $5 million from BHP Billiton for the next five years. It then aims to be independent.

"There is that cycle where you haven't got a home, so you can't get a job, so you can't get a home," Mr Sercombe said.

"Young people were bouncing around from one place to the next, couch surfing, into crisis accommodation and back again.

"The difference here is that we work solidly on how you get out of that, long term."

Ms Voss, who was recently given a WA Youth Award, said Foyer Oxford was her "first proper home with my daughter where I have felt secure and safe".

She went from the "nightmare" of sleeping on friends' couches with her newborn to getting a diploma of beauty and a job. She is now looking for her own place with daughter Elyra, three.

"Being here has changed my life," Ms Voss, 21, said.

"This has taught me what proper independence is. It's maintaining your own apartment, it's budgeting, it's being a responsible adult so when you leave here and go out in the real world this is how it is going to be.

"I'm ready to go but I have got everything I need from Foyer and I will for ever be grateful for it."

For Ms Hille, 20, her mental health battle and family complications landed her in crisis accommodation before she was accepted to Foyer Oxford.

In seven weeks, she has restarted her stalled diploma of child care and had job interviews. If she can get her diploma, she has an offer to manage a centre.

"I haven't had this kind of stable life at all before," she said.

"I have been battling mental illness and not having someone there, so when I came here and they said, 'We can help you with that', I couldn't believe it."

After Ms King had her daughter Aryiah nine months ago, she was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and admitted to hospital.

It was social workers who sent in the 20-year-old mother's application for accommodation at Foyer Oxford. She and Aryiah have been there six months.

"It was pretty tough when I moved here because I didn't have any family or friends and I didn't know anyone at all," she said.

"But it's been great meeting all the other mums. If I have any problems with Aryiah, I can ask them and there are classes here for mums that are really helpful."

She finished Year 11 at TAFE and study for her dream of being a nurse begins next year.