Homelessness

Media and commentary on our work protecting the rights of people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and helping people avoid or exit homelessness.

  • StreetCare endorses Homelessness NSW State Election Platform

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    PIAC’s consumer committee on homelessness, StreetCare, has welcomed Homelessness NSW’s State Election Platform 2018-2019. StreetCare Project Officer, Maddy Humphreys, said that the platform presented a clear set of priorities to prevent and address homelessness across the state. ‘StreetCare members, all of whom have lived experience of homelessness, overwhelmingly support the initiatives identified by Homelessness NSW,’…

  • Welcome Maddy Humphreys

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    The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is very pleased to announce the appointment of Maddy Humphreys as our StreetCare Project Officer within the Homeless Persons’ Legal Service team. As someone with her own lived experience of homelessness, Maddy has been an active member of PIAC’s homelessness consumer advisory committee, StreetCare, for almost two years and represents StreetCare on the NSW Premier’s…

  • Mental Health Matters Forum

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    Thanks to everyone who came along to our forum on mental health and mental illness on Tuesday evening. The Mental Health Matters event was the fourth in an annual series of public forums that PIAC organises with Sydney Grammar School to promote public discussion about public interest and social justice issues. Moderated by journalist and…

  • Opinion: Public housing in NSW – a tragic game of musical chairs

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     By Dr Louis Schetzer, Senior Policy Officer in PIAC’s Homeless Persons’ Legal Service As a kid I intensely disliked the game musical chairs. There was something in the underlying premise of the game that offended my childhood sensibilities – a dozen or so excited children contesting a deliberately inadequate supply of chairs, with a backing…

  • Homelessness in NSW up by 37% since 2011

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    Alarming new statistics on homelessness, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, reveal a sharp increase in homelessness in NSW in recent years, with a particularly worrying rise in the number of older women experiencing homelessness. PIAC’s Senior Policy Officer for Homelessness, Dr Louis Schetzer said that the figures, from the 2016 census,…

  • Homeless women: #metoo and the need to look beyond rough sleepers

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    The recent City of Sydney Street Count found that the number of people sleeping rough in inner Sydney has decreased by 24 percent compared to the same time last year. That translates to 100 less people sleeping on the streets. In many respects, this is an extraordinary result – the largest reduction in rough sleeping…

  • Know your rights: public spaces in NSW

    The Homeless Persons’ Legal Service (HPLS) at PIAC has put together a brochure outlining people’s rights in public spaces – particularly aimed at people experiencing homelessness in the inner city of Sydney, but relevant to all public places in NSW. Please feel free to print and distribute this version. Contact us for printed copies. Guide…

  • Remembering Dale King – 1955-2017

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    By Louis Schetzer, Senior Policy Officer, Homelessness, PIAC It is with much sadness that we note that Dale King, a committed and long-time StreetCare member and fearless advocate for homeless consumers, passed away in late November following a short illness. Dale was a larger than life character. From the time he started in StreetCare in…

  • Proposed homelessness laws heavy-handed and counter-productive

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    The NSW Government’s proposed new laws to give police more power to forcibly evict homeless people from public spaces are heavy-handed and an ineffective way of dealing with homelessness in the inner city. ‘There are over 400 rough sleepers in the city on any given night, and these laws will affect all of them,’ said…

  • Sleeping rough, stigma and the importance of home

    It’s time to talk about homelessness   Despite Australia’s record economic boom, rates of homelessness have been on the rise for years, and the social stigma surrounding homelessness only perpetuates the problem. Join the host of SBS’s Insight, Jenny Brockie, and an expert panel for this public event to discuss the realities of homelessness in…

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