A major welfare body has warned of a concerning increase in the number of working families seeking emergency homelessness help, as services are pushed to the brink. Source: News.com.au.
The number of working families in dire need of emergency help has substantially increased, with one homelessness services provider fearing that the “rise of the working poor” is resulting in families “not just struggling” but “slipping into homelessness”.
New data from Homelessness Australia found that between 2021-22 to 2023-24, there was a 5 per cent increase in families with children turning to homelessness services for urgent help.
Nominally, this reflected a 4654-person increase, with 92,476 people seeking help from services in that period, with the number of families already homeless at the time of seeking help increasing by 11 per cent.
The number of clients with a waged income requiring support has also grown from 10.5 per cent to 12.1 per cent over the two-year period.
The national peak body said the sharper rates of homelessness were exacerbated by the housing crisis as well as under-resourced services grappling with years of increased demand.
Michael Piu, head of Perth-based provider St Patrick’s Community Support Centre, said his organisation had reached “unprecedented demand”, with staff now seeing “working families” facing homelessness for the first time.
Describing the cohort as the “working poor”, he said supporting families facing homelessness was challenging, with the system set up to respond to single adults.
“Families now make up 25 per cent of our case-managed clients and up to 43 per cent of those seeking emergency relief. That’s a sharp increase, and it’s still likely under-reported,” he said.
Mr Piu said the immense demand was resulting in services being unable to give support to those desperately requiring help.
Homelessness Australia has called on the Albanese Government to create a National Housing and Homelessness Plan with clear targets and timelines to ensure accountability, boost social housing investment to ensure stock accounts for 10 per cent of homes, and increase funding to First Nations organisations.
FULL STORY
Alarming increase in Australia’s ‘working poor’ slipping into homelessness, Homelessness Australia data shows (By Jessica Wang, News.com.au)
