The number of people sleeping rough in the city of Sydney has grown 13 per cent in one year, a meeting at Kogarah on homelessness was told today.
The St George and Sutherland Shire Homelessness Awareness Day held at the Kogarah Storehouse gave attendees a first-hand account of the blunt reality of being homeless.
More than 37,000 people in NSW were experiencing homelessness, according to the 2016 Census.
The current number is not known except that it is growing. Numbers in St George and Sutherland Shire are also not available as recent counts have not been taken.
Giving the Welcome to Country at the Kogarah meeting, Aunty Deanna Schreiber of the Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation highlighted the importance of the homelessness problem.
"At any moment it could happen to us," she said.
"I know many people who are sleeping rough. These are people we know, your relatives, people you love. We need more buildings that are laying idle to be used.
"It all comes down to greed and the dollar. We have to say to the government, it is not good enough, it is not Australian."
The guest speaker for the day was Homelessness NSW policy and research officer, Digby Hughes.
He said that Aboriginal people are over-represented in homelessness figures.
"We know 28 per cent of the homeless are Aboriginal, we are talking of two to three per cent of the population," Mr Hughes said.
"The resources we lack most of all is housing. We can get support for services - mental health, domestic violence - but we have got a housing problem and the reason they can't house people is that there is no housing."
Mr Hughes said there has been a 13 per cent increase in rough sleeping in the city of Sydney.
In February, 2018, there were 329 people rough sleeping. In February, 2019 there were 373.
"Housing this number is tough but we can do it.
"In the last 12 months we have housed 400 people but at the same time the numbers of people sleeping rough has increased 13 per cent.
"Seven out of 10 people come from Family and Community Services (FACS) housing, that is, from eviction; others are from mental health services, others are out of jail. Seven out of 10 people living on the streets have come from NSW Government places.
"We have to stop people becoming homeless in the first place.
"We have talked to people who have lived the experience. We have multiple services going out and working with people.
"It is a question of services working together," he said.
Recently, local services got together including FACS, mental health, community housing, police, for intensive case management to successfully house 20 people who were rough sleeping in a car park at Penrith.
Services also have to be flexible, Mr Hughes said.
FACS housing is wiping debt so people can get back into housing.
A couple was sleeping rough in their car because they felt they could not get into housing as they were not sure if they driving licence was valid or their fines had been paid.
A service provider was able to check with police who said their licence was valid and and were able to apply to get into housing.
"We know we can house people because of the example of two programs. Platform 70 in Woolloomooloo was able to house 70 people and the Common Grounds project at Camperdown was able to house 50, that's 120 people.
"If people are housed with the right support, the vast majority of those people stay housed. Some of them have been homeless for 20 or 30 years.
"We need in NSW 5000 houses per year for 10 years," Mr Hughes said.
"We have 60,000 families on the waiting list for housing. This is appalling. Australia is the best country in the world. We have had 28 years of continuous growth but we have homelessness because we don't have the social housing stock.
We need governments to step up and say we are going to build housing that people can live in."
Emma (not her real name) spoke of her personal experience with homelessness.
She had problems living at home and had to move but was working as a cashier and had no qualifications. Then she was injured and had to leave home sooner than planned.
"I left home wondering where I had to go," Emma said. "The impact of living homeless is degrading, dehumanising and humiliating."
Emma said she also had complex mental health issues.
"I moved from hotel to motel. I had to sleep somewhere because of mental health issues which would be exacerbated by homelessness," she said.
Emma moved from one place to another with all her belongings in a backpack and luggage.
"When you are homeless as I was you can't think properly. You just can't sit there and think clearly.
"I kept calling services to see if they could help. One service said they couldn't help because I was out of the area.
"A homeless person who is experiencing mental health issues can't wait. Eventually a case worker was able to get in contact with me but I still had to wait.
"Eventually, I got out of homelessness with the help of a caseworker. I have my own place now. I don't take it for granted."
