DEAR News Of The Area,

Whether you see them or not, they are there.

As we enter Homelessness Week (1-7 August), every night there are more than 116,000 people who are homeless and don’t have somewhere safe or secure to sleep – including 37,715 in NSW.

There are many reasons why people face homelessness – for some it’s family breakdown, domestic and family violence, job loss or financial pressures, while others have fallen through the cracks of our mental health system.

At Mission Australia, we hear the cries for help on the frontline. Many of our services are at capacity, with social housing waitlists ballooning.

There simply aren’t enough safe, secure homes to house people.

That shouldn’t be the case in a nation like ours.

We anticipate August’s 2021 Census will show an increase in homelessness, yet our Federal Government still has no national plan to end homelessness in Australia.

I encourage everyone to join me and the thousands of others who are calling on political leaders near and far to make the changes needed to end homelessness.

Please also consider signing up to the Everybody’s Home campaign to call for solutions to end homelessness at everybodyshome.com.au.

There was a distinct lack of leadership in the Federal Budget – we need to do better.

Regards,

Jesse TAYLOR,

Community Development Officer,

Mid North Coast NSW,

Mission Australia Housing.