Australian Politics Forum

Momentum grows for national homelessness plan in Australia :)
The Morrison government needs to show leadership on homelessness by starting work on a national action plan by the end of the year, housing advocates say.

Pro Bono Australia
August 5th August 2019

The Everybody’s Home campaign said momentum was growing for a national homelessness plan, with local governments calling on the federal government to work with them on a strategy.

The advocacy group urged people to write to Assistant Homelessness Minister Luke Howarth during Homelessness Week (4-10 August) demanding work begin on a plan by the end of 2019.

Campaign spokesperson Kate Colvin said with homelessness affecting every state and territory, national leadership was required to solve the problem.

She said homelessness has risen by 14 per cent over the past five years and by as much as 48 per cent in some parts of the country. :(

“We need a national homelessness action plan that addresses all the drivers of homelessness, including falling investment in social housing in Australia and proper support services for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness,” Colvin said.

“Any action plan should also be bipartisan, and include input from all state and territory premiers or homelessness ministers, from local government, people with a lived experience of homelessness, and people working in the sector.”

Colvin told Pro Bono News that analysis from Homelessness Australia showed that investment in social housing and homelessness has fallen in real terms by $82 million over five years.

She said while more investment in housing was a must, governments also needed to do more to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.

“That means better support for tenants, and also help for people who have more complex needs and require support to retain their housing,” she said.

Assistant Minister Howarth attracted controversy recently, after he said in an interview he wanted to put a “positive spin” on homelessness.

While he came under fire from community groups at the time, Colvin said Howarth had indicated a willingness to tackle homelessness in a bipartisan way.

“He’s also said he’s looking forward to speaking to people on the ground about the issue when he’s in Tasmania to launch Homelessness Week [on Monday],” she said.

“It’s a good sign that he’s prepared to take Australia’s growing homelessness problem seriously and show national leadership on the issue.”

Howarth did not comment on if the government would consider a national homelessness plan when contacted by Pro Bono News, but in a statement said tackling the issue required cross-sector support.

“It’s incredibly important [during Homelessness Week] to recognise the need for all levels of government, service providers and the private sector to work collaboratively to address homelessness and housing issues,” Howarth said.

The assistant minister travelled to Tasmania on Monday to meet with officials, service providers and frontline volunteers, amid discussions with the Tasmanian government for the Commonwealth to help address the state’s housing and homelessness crisis.

St Vincent de Paul National Council has also called this week for a long-term national homelessness strategy.

CEO Toby O’Connor said a non-partisan commitment from federal, state and territory governments was needed to help solve the crisis.

“Only once medium and long-term safe, secure and affordable housing for low income Australians is achieved, can the barriers to employment and broader participation for vulnerable Australians be addressed,” O’Connor said.

“This can be done when all the parties come to the table.”

Yes they should do something about homelessness. Yet on the other hand, they wont increase the newstart allowance. Go figure. :(

The Salvos already do this.

whiteknight wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:38pm:

Yes they should do something about homelessness. Yet on the other hand, they wont increase the newstart allowance. Go figure. :(

And the happy clapping clown has the gall to call himself Christian.

Gweggy is off and running as he goes off the rails again.

Knocking down all the govt housing wasn't a good thing. It's where the poor old ppl went instead of expensive ripoff retirement villages.

Spot

juliar wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:48pm:

The Salvos already do this.

The Salvos are the biggest con merchants in history. Even their charity shops are franchised.

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 2:22pm:

whiteknight wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:38pm:

Yes they should do something about homelessness. Yet on the other hand, they wont increase the newstart allowance. Go figure. :(

And the happy clapping clown has the gall to call himself Christian.

Maybe ScoMo believes in the prosperity gospel?

Longy will explain it to you.

There's no profit in this. Government won't care.

juliar wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:48pm:

The Salvos already do this.

how much do they charge the tax payer for this socko ?

Bobby. wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 7:19pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 2:22pm:

whiteknight wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:38pm:

Yes they should do something about homelessness. Yet on the other hand, they wont increase the newstart allowance. Go figure. :(

And the happy clapping clown has the gall to call himself Christian.

Maybe ScoMo believes in the prosperity gospel?

Longy will explain it to you.

God helps those who help themselves :D LOL

Sir lastnail wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 9:03pm:

Bobby. wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 7:19pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 2:22pm:

whiteknight wrote on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:38pm:

Yes they should do something about homelessness. Yet on the other hand, they wont increase the newstart allowance. Go figure. :(

And the happy clapping clown has the gall to call himself Christian.

Maybe ScoMo believes in the prosperity gospel?

Longy will explain it to you.

God helps those who help themselves :D LOL

God wants you to be prosperous -
if you go to church and pray you'll
soon be driving a new Mercedes or a Ferrari.

Longy will confirm this theory.

Already got one - and it's working magnificently.... the homeless are fully supported in their homelessness..... :o

Down in Victoria they have built shoe boxes for the homeless. It was on the TV.

Perhaps the condemned unit buildings sabotaged by the CFMMEU and now full of cracks could be turned over to the homeless ?

The Liberals have a plan: Everybody has the right to become homeless. The government won't stand in their way.

juliar wrote on Aug 7^th, 2019 at 10:43am:

The report said the fault was in the DESIGN of the footings.. hello???

Laugh till you cry wrote on Aug 7^th, 2019 at 12:28pm:

The Liberals have a plan: Everybody has the right to become homeless. The government won't stand in their way.

Nah, nah - the government will enforce their right to be homeless!! The homeless must be empowered in their plight.... and no do-gooder should be seeking to compel them to get off the streets and into warm, safe accommodation with an opportunity to cook food, have a shower, etc ......

The Bureau Of Homeless Housing will ensure that... will ensure that the homeless are housed without a home and will assimilate with the environment in which they live to the greatest degree that they can achieve... they will be all they can be!!! .... and let none deny them that right!!

You need to become more positive in your policies, son...... be affirmative and empower the homeless ...

The CFMMEU interferes with every aspect of building construction from the footings to the roof. They interfere with supplier choice and the actual building. Cheap footings concrete from a union favored supplier ? What about the Chinese flammable claddings ? The unions and the Chinese are as thick as thieves.

Can the CFMMEU sabotage these tiny houses too ?

Back from the brink of homelessness: The tiny houses making a big difference
Euan Black 10:11pm, Aug 8, 2019 Updated: 10:18pm, Aug 8

Sandi Taylor says her life was changed by one little thing ... a tiny house. Photo: TND/KUC

It’s difficult to understate the importance of having a space to call your own.

Somewhere to shut out the world and the stresses that come with it. A place to reflect and rebuild.

It doesn’t need to be much. But without it, we can’t weave the fragments of our days into a coherent understanding of our lives. Can’t put ourselves first and work towards a future of our own making.

Sandra Taylor (Sandi) knows the feeling.

For while homelessness is synonymous with sleeping rough in the minds of most Australians, more than 100,000 people in Australia are experiencing what’s been described as “invisible homelessness”.

Sleeping on a different couch every night, crammed into bedrooms with three or more people, or living in crisis accommodation, they lack what’s found at the heart of every success story: A stable home.

Sandi had a roof over her head, but there was no stability.

As a child, she shared a bedroom with her sister. Her second sister and brother bunked together in another, and her parents lived in a third. Space and stillness were in short supply.

Then came Alannah, the fifth child in the family.

Alannah was born with cerebral palsy and chronic lung disease. She needed an oxygen tank to survive the first two years of her life, and relied on a gastronomy tube until her 16th birthday.

Her arrival thrust eight-year-old Sandi into adulthood.

Sandi in her teen years.

“It just wasn’t a recipe for a happy household,” Sandi tells The New Daily.

“Thinking about that oxygen machine, I can hear the buzz in my head now – it’s chiselled into my brain.”

Cleaning food debris from Alannah’s gastronomy tube and suctioning her nose were other routine tasks for Sandi.

On top of the typical coming-of-age challenges, and the difficulties of living with four siblings, the added chores were often too great an ask.

“There was a lot of babysitting, a lot of young kids being left with me from a young age just because we couldn’t get anyone else,” the 28-year-old recalls.

“It was just a whirlwind of added responsibilities.”

As her parents struggled to manage her sister’s condition, the family home became fraught with tension.

Emotions ran high, and Sandi soon found the simplest way to defuse an argument was simply to leave.

She hung out in parks late into the night, and couch-surfed at various friends’ houses for days on end.

Homelessness loomed on the horizon.

And then it didn’t.

Recognising that teenaged Sandi was at risk of experiencing homelessness, a community service organisation referred her case to the not-for-profit Kids Under Cover (KUC).

The tradies followed soon after, and built a one-bedroom unit in the backyard of the family’s Melbourne home.

Sandi finally had a space of her own, and the spectre of homelessness receded.

“I remember getting told I was getting my very own bedroom that had a bathroom, and I was the happiest kid alive that day,” recalls Sandi.

“It gave me a space where I didn’t have to listen to the hustle and bustle. I could have a shower in my own shower and not fight with anyone.”

Sandi is one of 3200 teenagers helped by KUC, which has undergone numerous evolutions since it was established in 1989.

It started as a house for struggling young mothers.

“But it soon became evident that entrenched the separation of those young people from their families,” says KUC spokesperson Fiona Dickson.

“The real opportunity was to keep families together.”

The change in tack was just as well, given how a series of events and studies since then have demonstrated the superiority of prevention over cure.

In 2015, Wales became the first country to pass a law requiring governments to help people experiencing homelessness find accommodation.

A year later, 65 per cent of people who had presented at the first of the three-stage local government process reported successfully avoiding homelessness.

And two years later, the University of Melbourne found that 63 per cent of people who have experienced homelessness “cite family breakdown or conflict as the main reason for becoming homeless for the first time”.

Sandi doesn’t need an academic study to prove the importance of keeping family together.

For her, it was the difference between forging a successful career and living on the street.

“It kept me at home until I was 17 – until I had the foundations and the skills and the ability to properly live on my own,” Sandi says.

“It just made the world of difference.”

https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/property/2019/08/08/tiny-homes-teenagers-hoemlessness/

Australian Politics Forum
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl General Discussion >> Federal Politics >> We Need A National Homelessness Plan http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1565062425 Message started by whiteknight on Aug 6^th, 2019 at 1:33pm