Past year 22 per cent rise in of homeless in Sydney
The rise comes more than a year after the federal government's pledge to halve the number of homeless nationally by 2020.
In a white paper on homelessness launched in December 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged to outlay $1.2 billion over four years to build new housing and increase services for the homeless.
But the City of Sydney council says the problems are actually getting worse.
There were 416 people sleeping on the inner-city streets, or in a temporary overnight shelter, when the latest count was conducted on Tuesday between 1am (AEDT) and 3am.
The count, which takes place twice a year and has been running since 2008, was conducted by 146 volunteers, including those who were or had previously been homeless.
Those sleeping rough were found in suburbs including Woolloomooloo, Kings Cross, Paddington, Glebe, Surry Hills, Ultimo and Redfern.
The figure is 22 per cent higher than those counted in February 2009.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the situation was worrying and had to change.
"Our street counts show a concerning, consistent rise in the number of people counted sleeping in our parks, streets, trains, train stations and in overnight temporary shelters since we started conducting these counts in August 2008,'' she said today.
She says the City of Sydney is committed to ending chronic homelessness through funding and coordinating a number of services and projects.
Despite continuing problems with issues of homelessness, welfare advocates say they're not keen to throw cold water on the government's 2008 white paper on the issue.
"It's not all talk and no action,'' the Wayside Chapel's Graham Long told AAP.
"And a lot of the talk is very good talk.''
That said, Reverend Long said the problem could not be addressed by merely "flicking a switch''.
"It's a problem that, if we are going to make progress ... it will be a progressive, slow kind of thing,'' he said.
"And I think most of us believe progress can be made.''
Reverend Long named the adoption of the Common Ground concept, which began in New York in 1990, as a worthwhile outcome of the 2008 white paper into homelessness.
The aim of the concept is to build and operate a range of housing options for homeless and low-income individuals.
It has recently been taken up in most Australian states.
In August 2009, former NSW premier Nathan Rees announced a purpose-built building in Camperdown, in Sydney's inner west, to accommodate homeless people and people on low incomes.
The project will be based on the Common Ground model.
In 2008, Mr Rudd's wife, Therese Rein, was appointed patron of the Common Ground network in Australia.
"In one sense, it's a way of diverting money away from teaching homeless people how to play the guitar and giving them a roof over their head first,'' Reverend Long said.
He said people living in housing projects based on the Common Ground concept were encouraged to take an interest in their community.
"It's like (being on a) body corporate, almost,'' he said.
"I see that as coming out of the white paper and I see it as very positive.
"But it's only a start,'' he added.
At first thought, many people might think this is just a small issue happening in every country around the world nowadays. However, when we look deeper into this issue it actually bring many serious problems to our society and atandard of living. Many problems such snatch thief, robbery, and pick pocket are good examples to support this as the numbers of this problem is soaring rapidly. This is because the homeless people don't have any income and financial resources to support their cost of living, hence they have to carry out things against the society value. Hence, government should come out with the effective plans to reduce the number of homeless people and motivated their citizen to move forward together with the country development.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Yuree, these homeless people will create more and more problems if we do not take any action to help them. Like what in Mas's article before about homeless people who involve in drugs. Some of the homeless willing to do anything to feed their needs for drugs by sex and theft. If the government do not take an early action on them, they might give a bad view of the country. Suprisingly, Malaysia also have the same problem. I didn't know about this before, but when I watched 'Aduan Rakyat' (in tv3), there are a lot of homeless people in our country, especially those who came to work as labour in Malaysia. We never knew it once we saw it by our one eyes. If we really a 1 Malaysia, why don't we help them too??
ReplyDeleteYa..i agree as well. However it is unavoidable in the period of recession. What should be done is the whole world should work together in order to cover up the recession and promote economic growth for their country through buying domestic products....Those homeless people should also be patient and positive, they need to have strong determination not to involve in such criminals.
ReplyDeleteRecession creates lots of problems. Government should take possible actions as fast as possible. To get it work as well as to reduce suffering, we have to come together as a powerful and determine nation to strike down the challenges! One Malaysia!!!
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