Australia's New PM Vows to End Homelessness

Homelessness is an issue that America's presidential hopefuls should be addressing.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23116722-5001021,00.html

The Kid Rasta 8)

 

I see you hit us with the Sunday Night Special..

all these threads and all

 

Thank god for change!

I went west for the xmas holidays and was staying in a caravan park in a small town. I was talking to a middle aged guy there who was on the dole. He applied for public housing in a regional city in the state (a city with approx 200,000 - the town we were in has about 3000 people and is approximately 10 hours west from that city). He applied for a house, so he had somewhere to bring his kids to visit.

The waiting list is......

14 years.

But he could get a house in the small town almost straight away...But is is a really crap country town.

That city is probably the 2nd or 3rd biggest urban area in the state...
Rent has almost doubled in 5 years, house prices are some of the most expensive in the world (relatively).

I work in the development industry - and private crisis housing has depleated by about 80% in 20 years, because of the value of the land and redevelopment. Families are living in tents. It's rediculous.

Public housing is not a money maker, so the government isn't ivesting and they're leaving is largely up to the private sector. Hopefully the labor government will put some effort into this really quite bad problem.