Joint letter for emergency homelessness investment

To: The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

Your action is needed: The homelessness crisis is killing Australians

New analysis by the AIHW reveals that homeless Australians are dying at almost twice the rate of people with homes, with deaths of despair from suicide and overdose the leading cause of death. In ten years the number of homeless deaths has surged by 63 per cent.

Everyday homelessness services lose more than four people.

The devastation of homelessness on people’s lives is made far worse by the lack of support that homelessness services can provide to people in crisis.

Homelessness Australia’s recently released report: Call Unanswered: unmet demand for specialist homelessness services revealed that 3 million Australians are at risk of homelessness, and services are so overwhelmed that over a two week period 40% of services had to close their doors; and 83% of services couldn’t always answer the phone to people seeking help.

This means that people in desperate need can’t get through to a worker. When they do get through the available supports are so scarce, that services are triaging assistance to only the most vulnerable. Even so, on one in five days there was no support available even to a family with children with nowhere to go that night. Many of these families are fleeing family violence.

The tragedy of lives lost revealed by the AIHW has to drive action.

In the upcoming mid year budget we urge you to make an emergency commitment to homelessness services so that no one is turned away from help. Investment in income support and social housing is also needed to drive down homelessness risk.

We acknowledge and thank you for commitments in previous budgets that have made a positive difference, including investments in social housing, Commonwealth Rental Assistance, the Leaving Violence Payment, and homelessness services, but the depth of the homelessness crisis demands deeper action.

Yours sincerely

Kate Colvin, CEO, Homelessness Australia on behalf of (100+ signatories)

CEO, Homelessness Australia

on behalf of: