I don't know what is happening in the rest of the world weather wise but Sydney is absolutely vile - freezing cold with torrential rain. Not much fun at the best of times but it really got me thinking as I was preparing to drive away from the office. Just outside our offices there are a regular group of people that sleep rough in Woolloomooloo. Many of them were huddled under the bridge, trying to maintain a dry spot. How tough would it be to be sleeping rough tonight - and for the next week for that matter as the weather is set to continue?
With all the emphasis on ending homelessness, I hope we manage to make in-roads to the numbers that are truely roofless as this can not be living.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Counting the homeless
Attended a consultation yesterday with the Australian Bureau of Statistics regarding the census count of homelessness. Somewhat reassured that they do now understand the importance of engaging with workers in the field to assist and advise them in building a count that is credible and believeable. There was also good discussion about the complexity of measuring homelessness - it is hard to build a count that captures an accurate representation of the number of people homeless across Australia.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Starting the Homelessness NSW blog
I have finally found the time to start creating the Homelessness NSW blog spot. Miracles will never cease! Please hang in with me over the first few days - blogging is very new to me.
We are traveling around the state at the moment with collegues from Yfoundations, the NSW Women's Refuge Movement, Community Services and Housing NSW to meet with services and explore what the homelessness policy directions contained within the NSW Homelessness Action Plan mean for them and their services. It is great to hear from people out there in the field - to hear key issues, challenges and opportunities directly from their mouths.
Not surprisingly, a major challenge is the significant lack of affordable and social housing across NSW. It is hard to know how we are going to end homelessness without a supply of housing. Something that our federal and state governments are going to have to give serious thought to.
We are traveling around the state at the moment with collegues from Yfoundations, the NSW Women's Refuge Movement, Community Services and Housing NSW to meet with services and explore what the homelessness policy directions contained within the NSW Homelessness Action Plan mean for them and their services. It is great to hear from people out there in the field - to hear key issues, challenges and opportunities directly from their mouths.
Not surprisingly, a major challenge is the significant lack of affordable and social housing across NSW. It is hard to know how we are going to end homelessness without a supply of housing. Something that our federal and state governments are going to have to give serious thought to.
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