The Homeless issue is all our responsibility.

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“We paid $1,000,000 for a homeless man to die on Victoria St Darlinghurst.

The homeless issue is all our responsibility. It’s not someone else’s and it’s not just the governments responsibility. It’s up to you, me and all of us.”

Had a most informative meeting with Rob and Bhramar from Wesley Mission (@wesleymission).

Rob has been involved with Wesley Mission and Homelessness for around 20 years. In speaking about his time in working closely with people experiencing homelessness, he emphasised the importance of those protective elements in life that can make a huge difference – family, employment security and community connections. He added that we’re all closer to homelessness than we think. Anything can happen at any time that can introduce or exacerbate vulnerability.

Rob shared the story of an elderly couple who had been paying their rent for 10 years always on time when one day one partner passed away and the pension halved for the household. The surviving partner couldn’t afford the rent anymore and started falling into arrears and eviction became imminent.

In another story I heard this week there was a gentleman living in Hyde Park who became homeless after his life fell apart. He was involved in a car accident whilst driving with his son and his son died. This fellow blamed himself and from the trauma He lost everything and found himself homeless.

These stories show just how vulnerable anyone could be to becoming homeless.

The face of homelessness is the rough sleeper on the streets but the reality is there are many more “hidden homeless” consisting of couch surfers, dislodged families plus women and children in shelters making up a larger proportion.

There is a misconception that the homeless have done it to themselves and must be alcoholics, drug users and gamblers. But the truth is addictions are consequences of homeless people losing connection with family, friends and the loss of community contribution i.e. a job or business. A third of the people experiencing homelessness cite housing affordability as the primary cause. A number of homeless people are working, but cant afford housing.

Rob told the story of a homeless man who died on Victoria St Darlinghurst (https://www.smh.com.au/national/death-of-our-homeless-pal-million-dollar-man-20081004-gdsxih.html). The cost of not resolving his homelessness was estimated at about $1mil for the 20 years or so. That considers all the emergency presentations and police engagements – “randomly ricocheting through very expensive primary health, behavioral health, law enforcement and court systems (https://spectator.org/42280_changing-verb-homelessness/)”.

The homeless issue is all our responsibility. It’s not someone else’s and it’s not just the governments responsibility. It’s up to you, me and all of us.

Together let’s adopt a motto, “no one gets left behind”.

There are some wonderful insights and ideas Rob and Bhramar from Wesley Mission shared about how to create sustainable housing solutions to transform homelessness.

This interview was captured on video By Michael Langdon’s staff member Bailey of Serious Levity who have very graciously donated their time and resources to this community project. We hope to share parts of this interview over the coming weeks.

#homeless #agentshelphomeless #realestateagents #agents #wesleymission #seriouslevity #michaellangdon #barryliddle #propertysavers #robseaton #BhramarGupta #SophieEigenstetter

 

Barry Liddle