Back To State Issues
Everybody deserves a place to call home
Causes of homelessness include poverty, unemployment or a shortage of affordable housing, triggered by family breakdown, mental illness, sexual assault, addiction, financial difficulty, gambling or social isolation.
"This is a snap shot into Australia's future"...
Video - Employed but homeless in the US: The 'working poor' who can't afford to rent - by France 24
Rents and housing prices are rising astronomically, if elected I will press for much more affordable housing right now. It's cheaper to house homeless people than it is to put them through the endless piecemeal cycle of homeless shelters and triage services that cost taxpayers somewhere between $30,000 and $80,000 per homeless person per year. Physical shelter needs are only part of the problem.
"The government is talking about ending homelessness....but it is creating it at the same time".
Inadequate low income and supportive housing is part of a greater problem, other things that matter greatly are a sense of belonging, the sense of community, in terms of health and social services that are needed for people to be safe and healthy and happy.
Personal trauma is experienced before people are forced into homelessness, and they experience trauma while they're homeless. If we don't have systems in place to address that emotional damage, homeless populations will continue to rise.
My plan to end homelessness is...
The biggest thing that I would fund is ongoing supportive services in shelters and day shelters and outreach programs, including high-quality mental health and substance abuse programs for homeless families and individuals, because if they're not quality, if they're not sustainable, it actually does more harm than good for people trying to become more stable in housing and health.
Secondly, I would focus on "No grounds" evictions that allow dodgy landlords avoid their responsibilities around maintenance, as they can simply throw out tenants who demand that repairs are done.
Tenants shouldn't live in constant fear of receiving a termination notice if they ask for repairs, try to negotiate a rent increase, or simply because an agent or landlord doesn't like them, a major leading cause of homelessness currently.
Thirdly, and most importantly start to build housing, no amount of talking, no amount kicking the can down the road by successive governments will fix the huge homeless problem we are now facing...everywhere. The only factor that will do anything to start to reduce this problem is build housing, both Federal and State right down to local councils need to start building, enough talk.
As with all problems I have discussed thus far, homelessness was inevitable result of seeing housing as not a human right but an investment for the few to profit from, with all that original governments built in social housing in the 1950's and 1960's/70's, from then on governments have been focusing on selling off, pulling down social housing without replacing such and as a direct result we have today's ever growing homeless problem that is seeing no sign of getting better any time soon.
Good people of the Barwon electorate see this for what it is, if you keep electing the same people to govern you, you get the same result or worse, the housing crises can be fixed if the leaders you elect see it as a priority or have the will to do so, and I Stuart Howe have such a will.