Marking Homelessness Week 2021 – supports for people across our Diocese experiencing homelessness

On any given night, 116,000 people in Australia are experiencing homelessness.  Homelessness is not ‘rooflessness’. Only 7% of people without a home are sleeping rough.

CatholicCare on housing as a fundamental human need

Finding yourself homeless must rank as one of the most challenging things that could happen in life, but CatholicCare Diocese of Broken Bay’s Supported Temporary Accommodation (STA) program helps not only put an emergency roof over people’s heads, but assists them into more stable housing and a brighter future. “Being homeless is stressful,” says Sean MacKinnon, Practice Manager for CatholicCare’s housing and homelessness programs.

Reducing street sleeping – the Together Home program

During COVID-19 there were over 1,200 people street sleeping across NSW. As part of the Premiers promise to reduce street sleeping by half by 2025, a $36.1 million funding package was announced by the Department of Communities & Justice (DCJ) to fund community housing and support providers to make available 400 homes and support packages for clients who have a chronic history of experiencing homelessness across NSW.

CatholicCare supports for those in our Diocese facing homelessness

A person is homeless when they don’t have a fixed, regular or adequate night time residence. They may be sleeping in a shelter, couch surfing, sleeping in cars or on the streets.

New emergency relief funding very much needed

More than 13% of Australians live below the poverty line, after housing costs. Of the three million people living in poverty in Australia, 731,000 are children.

Fostering to adopt

There is strong evidence that many children in foster care experience ongoing disadvantage after they have been brought into care. Many children in foster care experience placement disruption, poorer mental health outcomes, social and emotional issues, and interrupted education.

Next week is Homelessness Week – how we support this important event

Homelessness Australia coordinates their annual Homelessness Week to raise awareness of more than 116,000 homeless Australians. It sheds a light on the issues Australia's homeless population faces each day, and suggests ways that we can help remedy the situation. 

My Buddy – an encounter with homelessness, from a privileged perspective  

Prompted by a good friend to keep my promise of a random act of kindness, the following encounter unravelled. Dashing to the supermarket a few months ago, I noticed a man sleeping rough on a public bench.

The lasting impacts of homelessness on the youth of Australia

According to the most recent report by the ABS Census of Housing and Population, roughly 116,247 people were homeless, with 26,787 (24%) being youth under the age of 18. This is an 11% increase since the last report in 2011, and the numbers continue to rise.

Changing lives with our Supported Temporary Accommodation program

Every night in Australia, more than 100,000 people are homeless. Homelessness can affect men, women and children from a wide range of backgrounds.

School helps fight homelessness on the Central Coast

Students at Brisbane Water Secondary College Umina Campus, are donating over $700 to Mary Mac’s Place in Woy Woy - an outreach community service providing up to 100 meals a day to the homeless as well as other services such as Legal Aid, emergency relief and partners in recovery and health assistance. 

Homelessness due to domestic violence on the rise

72,000 women across Australia, sought homelessness services in 2016–17 due to family/domestic violence. Our Staying Home Leaving Violence program gives women who want to escape domestic or family violence a choice to stay in their own homes or to leave safely.

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