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Women sleeping rough: The health, social and economic costs of homelessness is the first study to investigate the health outcomes of women sleeping rough and its associate costs. The self-report survey data was collected over a seven-year period in Australian cities by NGOs supporting those experiencing homelessness. This study provides one of the largest samples of women sleeping rough as well as experiencing other forms of homelessness.

Women were surveyed using the VI-SPDAT tool during Connections/Registry Weeks, whilst others were surveyed by homelessness services.

“The report compares the demographics, history and type of homelessness, physical and mental health conditions and service utilisation. This study not only demonstrates that women sleeping rough differ demographically to both men sleeping rough and women not sleeping rough but that they are at higher risk of poorer physical and mental health outcomes and higher levels violence and exploitation on the streets. Of concern is that the conditions experienced by women sleeping rough are among the leading causes of poor health and mortality.”

The study highlighted that women sleeping rough are particularly vulnerable to morbidity and early mortality. This in turn translated to high service utilisation. The development of housing and support strategies targeted to the needs of women sleeping rough will not only provide cost savings to the health sector, but more importantly, provide a safe and secure home and positive life outcomes for the women involved.

The Mercy Youth Awards are now open! High School students across Australia are invited to participate in the awards. The topic is Caring for our Environment. Students are asked to create a visual representation, like a cartoon, artwork, collage or photo, that shows the everyday actions that you can take to help address climate change; students are also asked to answer a quiz on climate change.

Entries close on 5 August 2022.

Find out more about the Mercy Youth Awards.

Today, Anglicare Australia released their Rental Affordability Snapshot that shows the housing crisis is worse than ever.

Of 45,992 rental listings across Australia:

• 720 rentals (2%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage
• 312 rentals (1%) were affordable for a person on the Age Pension
• 51 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension
• 7 rentals, (0%) all share houses, were affordable for a person on JobSeeker
• 1 share house (0%) was affordable for a person on Youth Allowance.

Action must be two fold:

• Significantly boost the social and affordable housing supply; we currently need 500,000 new social and affordable rentals across Australia
• Boost the Jobkeeper rate to $70 per day, to ensure people can cover the basics needed to live on.

The full report can be read here.

Compared to 2021, the supply of properties available to rent has significantly tightened by 38%, dropping from 74,226 to 45,992 properties, being a record low. The vacancy rate has halved from 2% to 1%.

This means that people on low incomes are competing with others on higher, more stable incomes to find a home. With rising inflation and stagnant wages, the outlook is dire for families and individuals living on low incomes.

We all have the right to a safe and affordable home. Unaffordable rent is a great burden on families and individuals trying to get by on low incomes. The massive shortfall in supply is pushing people into homelessness and leaving others perilously close to falling into homelessness.

All parties and candidates in the upcoming Federal Election must address this critical issue.

 

The Australian Government has now ratified the most contemporary international labour standard to address forced labour.

The Federal Executive Council has approved the ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Protocol of 2014 to Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No. 29) (the Protocol) and Australia communicated its formal ratification to the Director-General of the ILO in Geneva for registration.

The Protocol contains provisions to further tackle the complexities of modern slavery and to address the root causes of forced labour, with obligations to:

• prevent and suppress forced labour,
• protect victims and provide access to appropriate and effective remedies, and
• penalise the perpetrators of forced labour and end their impunity.

By ratifying this Protocol, the Australian Government should commit to the establishment of a national compensation scheme to assist victim-survivors in rebuilding their lives.

Read the press release

Mercy Foundation asks International Body to find that Australia is violating human rights to housing, an adequate standard of living, and non-discrimination and equality.

On March 9^th, the Mercy Foundation appeared before the United Nation’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  The Committee oversees Australia’s progress in realising economic, social and cultural rights, which under international law, it has agreed to respect, protect and fulfil.  These rights include the right to housing, non-discrimination and equality, and an adequate standard of living, among others.

Dr Jessie Hohmann, an internationally recognised expert on the right to housing in international law, assisted the Mercy Foundation in this process.

Economic, social and cultural rights give people dignity and insist that each person is entitled to the goods that make it possible for life to be fulfilling and dignified: safe housing, enough nutritious food, access to health care, and adequate pay for their work, for example.  As rights, they give equal moral worth to people, and insist that material supports are not merely a question of charity, but of humanity.

The Mercy Foundation brought to the Committee’s attention that Australia is failing to make progress toward fulfilling these rights.  Instead, Australia is, in many areas, moving away from ensuring people’s rights.  Over the last few decades, Australia has become an increasingly unequal country, leading to retrogression (or backward steps) in the enjoyment of economic and social rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  Wages have not kept up with the cost of living, social supports are inadequate and there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing.  For example, income support has not risen, in real terms, in 25 years.  These background conditions are leading to a housing crisis.  Homelessness is rising.  The price of housing is some of the highest in the world and rentals are increasingly unaffordable. The percentage of social housing has fallen, and there are very long waiting lists to access it, sometimes up to 10 years.  Many people are insecure in their housing, worrying about whether they can keep up with rental or mortgage payments, and where they will go if they can’t.  Older women, and women and children subjected to domestic and family violence, are the fastest growing cohorts experiencing homelessness.

In appearing before the Committee, the Mercy Foundation pointed out that Australia’s lack of progress on realising these rights rests on policy choices, not political, economic or logistical inability.

The Committee asked searching questions about why Australia was not already fulfilling these rights for everyone.  This is a question it will reiterate when the Australian government appears before it in the current United Nations Session.

Australia has the capacity to ensure these rights for all, not just for those already better off.  The Mercy Foundation was honoured to appear before the Committee as part of the United Nations Treaty Process, to advance an agenda of social justice, an end to homelessness, and an adequate standard of living for everyone.

The full text of the Mercy Foundation’s submissions to the Committee can be found here: https://bit.ly/3q78WX8

 Contact:

Sue Mowbray, CEO Mercy Foundation sue.mowbray@mercyfoundation.com.au

Dr Jessie Hohmann, UTS Jessie.Hohmann@uts.edu.auUpho

An actionable report from the Centre for Social Impact, Neami National and the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH)provides valuable insights into homelessness in Australia. The report examines the current state of homelessness in Australia  and presents the first detailed examination of data from the Advance to Zero database.

Since 2010, homelessness services have used Registry/Connection Weeks to understand the needs and vulnerabilities of people experiencing homelessness, particularly people sleeping rough.

Data from 21,000 people experiencing homelessness over the decade provides actionable data to end and prevent homelessness for some of our most disadvantaged people.

Some key findings are:

• Average length of time people had experienced homelessness: 3.8 years
• Around 70% of people sleeping rough had been in out of home care as a child at some point
• 30% identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people
• Health issues include cellulitis, foot/skin infections, dehydration, epilepsy and dental problems
• 21% reported a serious brain injury or trauma

The report identifies five key actions to end homelessness in Australia:

1. Leadership and proactivity at the Australian Government level and a national end homelessness strategy applying across the states and territories.
2.  An increase in the supply of social and affordable housing directed to an end homelessness goal.
3.  Comprehensive application of Housing First programs linked to supportive housing for those entering permanent housing with histories of homelessness and high health and other service needs.
4. Targeted prevention and early intervention programs which address the underlying drivers of homelessness in order to turn off the tap of entry into homelessness.
5. Supportive systems and programs which build the enablers of an end homelessness program: advocacy, commitment and resource flow to ending homelessness; effective service integration; culturally safe and appropriate service delivery including expansion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led and controlled services to help address high rates of homelessness in their communities; and improving data quality, evaluation and research around ending homelessness in Australia.

The report and summaries are available here:

Ending Homelessness in Australia

Bulletin 1: Understanding homelessness, taking action

Bulletin 2: Findings from the Advance to Zero database: A decade of community-led data collection among those experiencing homelessness in Australia’s cities

 

We are currently accepting applications for the Social Justice Small Grants program. Grants up to $10,000 are available for community organisations working to address poverty at the grass roots. It is estimated that 3.24 million people live below the poverty line in Australia. More than 1 in 8 adults and 1 in 6 children live in poverty.*

Priority will be given to projects that address poverty concerning women and children and marginalised groups in the community. Examples include projects that address unemployment, literacy, education and inclusion.

Organisations and projects must be in Australia and small to medium size organisations (turnover less than $500,000) that have limited access to other funding sources are prioritised.

Applications are due by Monday, 21 March 2022.

The application form and grant criteria can be downloaded here:

Application Form Social Justice Small Grants 2022

Read more about the Social Justice Small Grants program here.

*Source: ACOSS, Poverty in Australia: Part 1, 2020

A new report by Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)  and Western Sydney University’s Translational Health Research Institute has found that years after arriving in Australia, people seeking asylum face chronic homelessness and housing exclusion in the community. The Mercy Foundation provided funding for the report through its Grants to End Homelessness program.

The report, entitled A Place to Call Home: A Report on the Experiences of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion among People Seeking Asylum in Greater Sydney, presents findings from detailed interviews with fourteen women and men seeking asylum, exploring their experiences housing and homelessness, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Detailing participants’ housing trajectories, living arrangements and conditions, and challenges with finding and maintaining safe, secure, and adequate housing, A Place to Call Home shows how restrictions on economic and social rights associated with visa status, barriers to employment in competitive labour markets, and Sydney’s high rental prices generate conditions under which homelessness and housing exclusion become a feature of the lives of people seeking asylum.

Read more here

NSW is the first State or Territory in Australia to have standalone legislation in operation to fight against modern slavery. The NSW Modern Slavery Act 2018 will commence on 1 January 2022, three years after its enactment.

The amended Act has a number of changes to the original, in summary:

• The repeal of the reporting obligation for commercial organisations, with a turnover of $50M or more,  to report on how they are addressing modern slavery in their supply chains. The obligation to prepare modern slavery statements is now under the Commonwealth Act only (above $100M turnover).
• New offences prohibiting slavery, servitude, child forced labour and child forced marriage
• NSW Government agencies and local councils will be required to take reasonable steps to ensure their supply chains are free from modern slavery

Key features from the original Act are preserved or enhanced, particularly:

• The establishment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner,
• access to financial support, counselling and recognition payments to victims of modern slavery; and
• the establishment of a joint parliamentary committee on modern slavery.

Source: Lexology

Read the press release from NSW Government.