
Homelessness in Australia has never made sense to me.
The fact that in a rich country 100,000 people are without a secure place to stay seems ridiculous. So it’s a problem I’ve always been passionate about – as a person and as a politician. At university, I volunteered at Rosies. On Wednesday nights, with a group of other young people, I’d share a hot drink, a chat and a laugh with people who were sleeping rough. Many were living with substance abuse or mental health issues. Most were men.
These are the people that come to mind when most of us think about homelessness. But there is a larger, less visible group of Australians affected by this problem.
Most homeless Australians are women and children. Most don’t sleep rough, although they are in situations almost as precarious: crammed into overcrowded homes, couch-surfing, living in shelters that are dotted around our suburbs.
