Leading homelessness services say the sector is at capacity and under funded as more Aussies are needing help each day   
Australia’s leading homelessness services are being forced to turn away vulnerable people as the sector reaches capacity amid freezing temperatures this winter.


News.com.au
July 7, 2024


Australia’s homelessness services are “overwhelmed” and “overrun” as organisations are forced to turn away hundreds of vulnerable Australians needing help this winter.   

Melbourne City Mission head of policy and advocacy Shorna Moore said the service was experiencing an uptick in the number of people needing help, with numbers within some of their programs doubling in just 48 hours.

As Victoria’s largest youth homelessness service provider, MCM’s refuges are at capacity each night, Ms Moore said, with many young people told “there just isn’t a bed for them”.

Melbourne City Mission head of policy and advocacy Shorna Moore says the organisation’s refuges are at capacity each night.

“As a result, they are often forced to choose between sleeping outside in the freezing weather or returning to a violent home,” she said.

Ms Moore said winter was an “especially cruel time” for Australians without a home.

“Winter brings more dangerous conditions for people forced to sleep outside and in their cars and at Melbourne City Mission we are seeing people literally struggling to survive,” she said.

“We are supporting a lot of younger people and older people with material aid who are seeking warmth where they can, including amphitheatres and empty properties.”

Proud Kamilaroi woman Imogen Johnstone understands the “cruel” challenges winter’s freezing temperatures can bring for homeless people across the country.

At 14, Ms Johnstone was forced to leave her home in rural Victoria due to family violence and travel to Melbourne in search of services that could help her.


While Ms Johnstone was able to engage in Melbourne City Mission’s Frontyard Youth Services, as a teen she spent four years couch surfing and sleeping rough.

Proud Kamilaroi woman Imogen Johnstone first experienced homelessness at just 14, now a decade on, she is using her lived experience to help other vulnerable Victorians.

“I slept outside in parks and train stations and received some emergency relief; however, this did not meet my basic human needs and rights,” she said.

“The winter months were torture. I remember sleeping one night alone on a park bench in the freezing cold and I couldn’t get warm. I didn’t sleep the whole night as I felt so unsafe and cold.”

Now 24, Ms Johnstone uses her own experience to help change the situation for other children who are alone and homeless.

The young woman is part of the Home Time campaign, which is calling on the government to dedicate 15,000 tenancies to children and young people who have nowhere to live.

Homelessness Australia chief executive officer Kate Colvin said the lack of resources within

Australia’s homelessness sector was “just devastating”, noting the number of homeless people

receiving assistance remains stagnant despite rising rates of homelessness across the country.

Experts say there is not enough social and public housing available to help tackle Australia’s homelessness crisis.   

“They (services) have basically got scarce resources, and they have to allocate them to essentially the most vulnerable person coming through the door,” she said.

“Homelessness workers come to work because they want to help their fellow citizens who are really struggling and need this help and they just don’t have the resources they need.”

Homelessness services across the country turn away 295 people each day, with four in five of these being women or children, according to a 2022-23 specialist homelessness services annual report.

A report on government services found more than 57,500 people were identified as in need of accommodation but weren’t provided with any between 2023 and 2024.

Australia’s leading homelessness services say hundreds of Australian’s needing help each day are being turned away.

I stopped working on dept. Housing properties about 18yrs ago, and there was a ten year waiting list back then.  With state govts prefering to sell off prime land to private developers,  and failing to replace lost stock,  let alone build any extra stock needed with an increasing population,  social housing has become a memory of the  'good old days' for most people

Frank wrote on Jul 7^th, 2024 at 6:08pm:



Yes - it's all caused by mass immigration which no one voted for.
It was kept off the political agenda.
Instead - topics like homo marriage and the voice were invented
to make us worry about nonsense.