The Centre, in partnership with the Housing Assistance and
Referral Service and the Inner City Homelessness Outreach and Support Service,
is doing a great service for community members in need. Your money will go to
helping HARS and ICHOSS find safe and affordable housing for those who can’t.
Centre Coordinator Lisa Burns, along with her staff and
members of the Newtown Mission, are assisting the people that are falling
between the cracks in social services and below the poverty line. Once a
demographic that was predominantly comprised of older men, there has been an
increase in diversity in recent years with young struggling families and single
women coming into the picture.
Burns described the current housing situation as dire,
deserving more attention than it is receiving.
“It’s not a problem, it’s a crisis,” Burns said,
highlighting the current increase of people in a situation of transient
homelessness.
HARS and ICHOSS are assisting around 25 people a week into
accommodation for the homeless, but it goes a small way to meeting the needs of
the community, admits Burns.
“Safe, affordable housing is a right, not a privilege,” she
said, drawing particular attention to the gentrifcation of Newtown and its shift toward becoming an
exclusive area for the wealthy.
With the Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek, representing
an area so close to the epicentre of the problem, it will be interesting to
watch future developments and possible solutions to the housing crisis.
Assistance from HARS and ICHOSS can be sought on Monday
afternoons between 3:20 and 4:20, but watch out for the barbies, grilling
monthly, also on Mondays.
Photo: Rebecca Dudding: ICHOSS workers at the Newtown
Neighbourhood Centre for the launch of a new service for the homeless
Source: South Sydney Herald December 2007 www.southsydneyherald.com.au/