National Homelessness Week

Homelessness Comes as an Unexpected Shock

Marking National Homelessness Week 1-7 August 2022

St Vincent de Paul Society’s frontline members across Australia are seeing a disturbing increase in the factors contributing to homelessness, with most people never expecting to face circumstances leading them to lose or leave their homes. These factors include domestic and family violence, forcing women and children to seek safety elsewhere, as well as accidents and illness, death of a spouse, job loss, stagnant wages, rising rents and mortgage payments, a desperate lack of rental properties, especially in regional areas, and rising interest rates and consumer prices across the economy. Studies show that older women, with fewer savings and lower super, are now the fastest growing group facing homelessness.

 Comments from St Vincent de Paul Society National President Claire Victory.

‘Any of these factors, and in many cases a combination of them, are almost entirely unexpected and can quickly turn people’s lives around. Homelessness is not something you can anticipate or plan to avoid, and it’s a life changing experience. Our members meet with families and individuals across Australia and they’re increasingly finding people shocked that they must turn to charities for food, clothing or to have a safe and warm place to spend the night.

Imagine the stress when you have young children or are escaping from a violent partner. Life can be unpredictable but experiencing even the most traumatic event should never render us without a place to call home. The nationwide shortage of secure and affordable housing is a major challenge and a key contributor to people sleeping rough, whether outdoors, in cars or couch surfing in crowded households.

This has significant mental health impacts with the potential for long-lasting damage to young people. At least 650,000 social and affordable homes are needed right now, with over 116,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. According to Anglicare’s latest Rental Affordability Snapshot, only five rental properties out of more than 45,000 listings in all of Australia were affordable for a single person on JobSeeker. Just one is affordable for a person on Youth Allowance, and all are rooms in share houses.

Couples out of work, single parents on Centrelink payments, and people on the Disability Support Pension and the Age Pension all face a market where not even one per cent of rentals are affordable. A person on the minimum wage is barely better off, as wages fail to keep up with the cost of living and spiraling rents. The theme of National Homelessness Week is ‘To end homelessness we need a plan’ and prior to the federal election the Society released detailed strategies to develop more social, community and affordable housing, and to assist people on low incomes to obtain secure, long-term housing.

These include increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 50 percent, reinstating the National Rental Affordability Scheme, funding the National Low Income Energy Productivity Program, and developing national minimum standards for renters and landlords. The new Australian Government has made various commitments to this end, and we welcome the moves currently underway to address this national crisis. We understand that this is a complex issue and overnight change is not possible, but if all tiers of government work closely with the social sector we can make positive and lasting changes to the lives of so many people in need.’

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