Sleeping rough on the streets, in cars or tents is increasingly the only option left for thousands of people in Australia. Families are sleeping in cold, damp tents and people are spending years living on streets. This type of homelessness is dangerous, traumatic, and often life-threatening. But it is also solvable.
The reality is that there are very few real options for ‘youth safe’ housing in Australia and young people face uncertainty and danger when sleeping rough, in adult rooming houses and couch surfing. We’ve just distributed over $109,000 to support young people into safe housing.
Living in your car, on the street or in a makeshift camp site is dangerous and difficult. But it’s even more of a challenge through winter. Join us in Spreading the warmth this winter by helping provide warm safe housing, warm nutritious food, warm clothing and material aid.
It’s been a whirlwind 5 months as TipJar Tours Australia. The Alternative Dairy Co have taken their Team Championship across the country, raising funds to provide hospitality based training and employment opportunities to at-risk cohorts.
Sleep is inextricably linked to health and wellbeing and for those facing homelessness, it’s hard to come by. Our collaborative initiative SleepSafe has just finished distributing thousands of kits across Australia to those at risk of and experiencing homelessness.
Young people in Australia are entering homelessness at increasing rates, couch surfing and staying in insecure accommodation to avoid sleeping rough. Join us as we rally support to take action on youth homelessness, helping to provide safe housing and essential support.
The current drivers of homelessness are affecting people differently. Regardless of the cause or type of homelessness, we are seeing demand rise across the board. As the year draws to a close we are raising awareness about the ways in which housing, rental and cost of living pressures are pushing people into homelessness and housing precarity. With so many types of support needed, we invite our community to learn more and direct their support where they choose. Funds raised will help create safe new homes with all the essentials, feed people and families going hungry and skipping meals, and care for those with furry friends who are sleeping rough or without a stable home.
We know that young people are disproportionately impacted by the current housing crisis and face multiple barriers to securing any kind of accommodation. The result is rising youth homelessness. Currently there is no national strategy or adequate funding to address this situation for thousands of our young people. That’s why in April we raised funds to support three youth services in regional centres.
Australia is facing a rental crisis driven by decades of poor housing policy and social housing underinvestment, supercharged in recent years by the pandemic and world events. These factors have resulted in homelessness increasing by 8% and 42% of all low-income households experiencing rental stress. For people living on the margins, these factors lead to significant challenges in finding and maintaining safe and secure homes. Supporting someone with all the essentials needed to make a house a home, increases the likelihood that they will maintain their tenancy and avoid a return to homelessness. Through StreetSmart’s Making-a-Home program, vulnerable people are supported into safe, sustainable and secure tenancies, a critical step in preventing and ending homelessness.
While the Australian electorate is still seething from the knifing of yet another sitting Prime Minister, there is no sign the freshly conservative face of the federal Coalition is likely to attend to voters most pressing concerns: insecure work, the cost of living, good public healthcare and education, affordable housing and wealth inequality. While politicians in Canberra have been busy wrestling control of government, an estimated third of the population are in rental stress. Read More
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We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands on which our organisation is located and where we conduct our business. We pay our respects to Elders, past and present. StreetSmart is committed to honouring Indigenous peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society.
StreetSmart is an inclusive, respectful, and welcoming workplace that values diversity of expression. We know that members of the LGBTQIA+ community are particularly vulnerable to experiencing homelessness and we partner with organisations that work to support people in need, without discrimination or prejudice.
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