AUSTRALIA faces an almost terrifying task in housing its more than 100,000 homeless, Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek told a St Vincent de Paul Society homelessness conference last week.
Ms Plibersek told “The Human Face of Homelessness” forum held in the Brisbane City Hall on July 2 that it would take years to solve the problem.
“I know that it’s an ambitious agenda – it terrifies me a little sometimes how ambitious the task is that we’ve set ourselves,” she said.
The freeing up of Church land, the use of demountables, and of partnerships between governments, charities and banks to create more public housing were among possible solutions to the crisis mentioned by forum participants.
Problems peculiar to Queensland such as the mining boom leading to people on lower incomes being pushed out by high rents in such areas as Mackay were also mentioned.
Those at the conference also heard that 38,000 people were on the state’s public housing list and that this list was growing by 76 people a day.
Later Ms Plibersek told The Catholic Leader that domestic violence and the ongoing disappearance of low-cost rental options such as caravan parks were major factors behind the increasing numbers of homeless.
She also said it was important to make the stories of the homeless real so that ordinary Australians can be led to think “there but for the grace of God go I”.
Dr Falzon said at the conference opening that every person who experienced homelessness had “a unique story to tell – the invisible history of the underside of Australia, supposedly a land of opportunity; the ‘lucky country'”.
The forum, which featured many such stories, was the first of its kind hosted by St Vincent de Paul in Australia.
Its aim was to highlight the growing homelessness crisis in Australia and the need for “now” solutions as the Federal Government prepares to release a White Paper on the issue on September.
Others at the conference included St Vincent de Paul national president Syd Tutton, Queensland president John Campbell and the society’s state housing manager Wal Ogle.
Auxiliary Bishops Joseph Oudeman and Brian Finnigan represented Brisbane archdiocese.
A range of groups representing Brisbane’s homeless including Micah Projects, Centacare and Brisbane Boarders Ltd were also represented as were a number of homeless to tell their stories.
