Homeless Persons’ Week 2014

homelessness

Today is the final day of Homeless Persons’ Week for 2014. The theme this year is Homelessness: we can’t afford to ignore it.

Homeless Persons’ Week is an annual themed week coordinated by Homelessness Australia. It is used to raise awareness of people experiencing homelessness and the surrounding issues. – Homelessness Australia

It is held in the first full week of August each year.

Who would you think is the ‘average’ homeless person? Is it the stereotypical old man in ragged clothes, clutching a bottle in a brown paper bag, sleeping under some old newspapers on a park bench?

I remember statistics from a few years back saying that over 40% of the homeless in Perth were under 18. Families are living in cars; people who have jobs can’t afford the fuel to get to work; rent increases mean that parents can no longer put a roof over their family’s heads.

The homeless are people like you.

Unfortunately those who are homeless are often people who have had a change in circumstances which has meant that they no longer have somewhere to live. It can be a mother and her children fleeing abuse or a formerly successful white collar worker who has lost everything. Many times it can be people who have a job, but their wages just won’t cover the high cost of rent.

And if you think that homelessness doesn’t affect you, think again. Homelessness doesn’t only cause devastating personal harm, it significantly impacts on society and costs the government.

Homelessness is more than the absence of a home – it can be driven and compounded by interwoven conditions and problems. As a consequence, homelessness leads to a high use of public support services.

On average, the Commonwealth Government spends $15,000 on services for each Australian. People experiencing homelessness will cost the government $30,000 more each year. Australian governments spend millions of dollars each year dealing with the effects of homelessness.

Studies have shown that addressing homelessness reduces costs to government. Homelessness services assist people to achieve positive change in their lives, which reduced their use of other services. – Homelessness Australia

I’ve seen people living in extreme poverty in developing nations and I know the lies poverty tells people and the messages that it can send. You’re worthless. You’ll never break free from your circumstances. Nobody cares. I can see the same messages in homelessness here in Australia.

You might think that there’s no homelessness in your area but it’s extremely likely that if it’s not obvious, it’s still hidden somewhere in your own suburb. Please take the time to learn more about homelessness and then take steps to do something that will make a difference.

Check out the Homelessness Australia website and discover how you can be part of the solution.



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A Random Act of Snarkiness

burger

Josefa Pete lives in Melbourne with her husband and two young sons. To satisfy her love of writing she writes a blog titled Always Josefa.

Josefa also has occasional cravings for hamburgers. During one of those cravings she discovered a little of what Oscar Wilde may have meant when he said, “No good deed goes unpunished”.

In her blog post Random Act of Kindness she wrote about a random act of kindness that produced an unusual result.

The burger wasn’t great. Disappointed and worse still, I didn’t have time for an alternative. I pulled out my phone to be distracted by my twitter feed as I kept eating what was now my lunch, but certainly not my expectation. On my second bite, a middle-aged man walked past me. He was pale, dressed in a light pair of tracksuit pants and a t-shirt, which seemed strange on such a cold Melbourne day. He started to rummage through the bin behind me. Silently, he was pulling out scraps of food and placing them in a ripped brown paper bag. I put my hamburger down and couldn’t stop watching. He sat down and ate the few scraps he had rummaged. Now my lunch tasted even worse.

Please take the time to read her post to find out what happened. It astonished me and will probably shock you too.

I spoke to Josefa on my radio program this morning so that she could tell her story. You can listen to our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

I’d like to know if you’d let someone else’s attitude stop you from carrying out a random act of kindness. Leave me a comment and tell me about a random act of kindness you’ve received or maybe when you’ve had the opportunity to lend someone else a hand.



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St. Bartholomew’s House

National Homeless Person’s Week 2010 is on now and runs until Sunday. It aims to raise awareness of homelessness in the community, celebrate and acknowledge current services being offered to homeless people, foster collaboration of services working with the homeless, and attract more volunteers and financial support into

Every morning this week on 98.5 Sonshine FM I’ve been talking to people who serve Perth’s homeless community. Today I had the pleasure of talking to Lynne Evans, CEO St. Bartholomews House.

St Bartholomew’s House provides community based support, accommodation and assistance to homeless individuals, and establishes collaborative partnerships with individuals and other organisations to eliminate or reduce homelessness.

If you’d like to our chat simply click the play button of the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR080510_1440.mp3]

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What’s the Big Issue?

How does someone start looking up once they become homeless? How do they start to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel? How do they begin to hope again?

The Big Issue is a magazine that is sold on city streets by people who are homeless, long term unemployed, or disadvantaged. Becoming a vendor gives people a sense of purpose, raises their self-esteem, and gives them the ability to begin earning much needed income.

Professor Peter Kenyon is Professor of Economic Policy in the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University of Technology. He has taught at a number of universities in Australia and overseas. His research interests include, labour economics, international economics, economic policy and the Australian labour market in its international context.

Peter is also the Chair of the WA Advisory Board of the Big Issue and as part of Homeless Persons’ Week 2010 he was my guest on radio this morning.

National Homeless Person’s Week 2010 is on now and runs until Sunday. It aims to raise awareness of homelessness in the community, celebrate and acknowledge current services being offered to homeless people, foster collaboration of services working with the homeless, and attract more volunteers and financial support into

Every morning this week I’ve been talking to people who serve Perth’s homeless community. If you’d like to hear my chat with Professor Peter Kenyon simply click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR080410_1427.mp3]

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Street Law

National Homeless Persons’ Week 2010 is on now and runs until Sunday. It aims to raise awareness of homelessness in the community, celebrate and acknowledge current services being offered to homeless people, foster collaboration of services working with the homeless and attract more volunteers and financial support into the sector.

Everyday this week during my morning radio programme I’m speaking to people who serve Perth’s homeless community. Today’s guest was Tahnee Davies who is Board Member of Street Law.

Tahnee is a lawyer who is actively involved in helping to launch an independent free legal service for homeless people in Western Australia under the Street Law banner.

Street Law’s priorities over the last few years have been focused on obtaining seed funding for the centre. Finally late last year funding for the employment of a principal legal officer, an administrative officer and other administration expenses was secured from the WA Attorney-General.

Even prior to the funding grant, Street Law devoted a great deal of time to drafting administrative and legal manuals and creating partnerships with commercial law firms so that once funding was obtained, the service could be fully operational in a short period of time.

Street Law also entered into discussions with other homeless person’s service providers to determine appropriate locations for outreach legal services.

The Street Law service will be officially launched later this year.

To hear our discussion simply click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR080310_1105.mp3]

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