Homelessness In The ACT: Unfashionable Facts

Homelessness in the ACT is an issue that is not fashionable with the major parties. It will be acampaign issue for the Australia First Party as we develop our presence.

Many social workers say homelessness in Canberra is rising as the global financial crisis cutsdeeper into household budgets. Local relief centres are noticing an increased demand for foodand financial help. The global downturn means some Canberra families are now struggling to keep a roof over their heads.

Between 2001 and 2006, there was actually an 11 per cent increase in the number of homeless people in the ACT and that was before the global financial crisis developed after October 2008. There has been a 40 per cent demand increase for emergency relief and service support across the sector."

St John's Care at the Anglican Church in Reid has confirmed demand at their centre has increaseddramatically in recent months.

Homelessness is starting to affect a broader range of people in the community.
"We're seeing a lot more new people coming to us, people who would never have had to
approach a welfare agency before," she said. A new report has found 20 per cent of homeless people in the ACT are under the age of 12, nearly twice the national average.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report, Counting The Homeless, comparedhomelessness figures collected across the country on census night in 2006.
More than 1,360 people in the ACT were found to be living in temporary accommodation or on thestreet.

Report co-author and RMIT University Associate Professor Chris Chamberlain says three-quarterswere aged under 35. "The homeless population in the ACT was younger than in any other state and territory," he said."Basically we aren't sure why but we are certain that the population is younger and it's really quite striking."

Associate Professor Chamberlain says many of the homeless children were staying in emergency accommodation with one parent. "In those cases it's a family household that's homeless," he said.

"Quite a lot of them it appears in the ACT were single parent families and a fair number of them were actually in emergency accommodation".

Australia First notes that he ACT Greens say the 2009report on homelessness showed how important it was to continue building public housing. The Greens – of course – with their so-called Human Rights agenda and support for refugee intakes, can be counted on to betray the interests of the homeless for the benefit of utter aliens.