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Fr Chris Riley, whose Youth off the Streets program runs “interventions” in emerging hot spots for homelessness, said half of the problem in a region such as the ACT could be solved “by providing houses”.
He said many homeless people had “just fallen on hard times” and did not necessarily suffer from an underlying trauma that made the problem more complex.
“Fifty per cent of your homeless just need a home,” he said, adding that he could see no evidence of the affordable housing governments had promised.
St Vincent de Paul national CEO Paul Falzon said, apart from arguments around compassion and dignity, a “shrewd economic argument” could be made for providing housing because research had shown that it costs the community more, in services, to leave someone homeless for a protracted period that it does to give them a house.
Leaving people homeless was “a waste of economic resources and a waste human life”, he said.
The society’s national vice-president, Graham West, agreed that the approach should be “housing first”, but was pessimistic about governments’ commitment to providing affordable housing and meeting the 2020 targets.
Other panellists in the forum included ACT Anglicare’s Jenny Kitchin, Homelessness Australia CEO Nicole Lawder, and Australian Catholic University law professor and human rights advocate Fr Frank Brennan. CEO of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation Mr Andrew Penfold gave the keynote address, while Canberra businessman Mr Glenn Tibbitts set the scene with a moving account of his former life on the streets.
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Inroads into the 2008 White Paper’s target of halving homelessness by 2020 could be made simply by providing more affordable housing, experts have argued in a forum on homelessness run by the St Vincent de Paul Society in Canberra.Fr Chris Riley, whose Youth off the Streets program runs “interventions” in emerging hot spots for homelessness, said half of the problem in a region such as the ACT could be solved “by providing houses”.
He said many homeless people had “just fallen on hard times” and did not necessarily suffer from an underlying trauma that made the problem more complex.
“Fifty per cent of your homeless just need a home,” he said, adding that he could see no evidence of the affordable housing governments had promised.
St Vincent de Paul national CEO Paul Falzon said, apart from arguments around compassion and dignity, a “shrewd economic argument” could be made for providing housing because research had shown that it costs the community more, in services, to leave someone homeless for a protracted period that it does to give them a house.
Leaving people homeless was “a waste of economic resources and a waste human life”, he said.
The society’s national vice-president, Graham West, agreed that the approach should be “housing first”, but was pessimistic about governments’ commitment to providing affordable housing and meeting the 2020 targets.
Other panellists in the forum included ACT Anglicare’s Jenny Kitchin, Homelessness Australia CEO Nicole Lawder, and Australian Catholic University law professor and human rights advocate Fr Frank Brennan. CEO of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation Mr Andrew Penfold gave the keynote address, while Canberra businessman Mr Glenn Tibbitts set the scene with a moving account of his former life on the streets.
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