22.1 C
Byron Shire
March 18, 2024

Does everyone deserve a home?

Latest News

Man killed in car crash near Coffs Harbour

A 76-year-old man died when the car he was driving crashed about 35 kms northwest of Coffs Harbour last Friday afternoon, police said.

Other News

Voices of those with memory loss to air in new Bay FM doco series

One in twelve Australians past the age of 65 are said to be living with dementia yet their stories are rarely heard.

What’s Mullum?

Having worked at the Ford dealership in Mullum while my wife ran an art and craft shop in Mullum,...

Wallum works 

With the recent issuing to the developer, Clarence Properties, of a subdivision works certificate, the fate of the Wallum...

Byron Mayor backs down over floodplain development 

Mayor Michael Lyon told Mullum residents that he has the numbers to remove floodplain development but will push through the Residential Strategy that aims for 4,522 homes by 2041.

Will rejected developments, now included in the TGHMS, destroy the Tweed Shire

It is unfortunate the Tweed Growth Management and Housing Strategy – draft Options Paper (TGMHS) is mired in much...

Floodplains, drainage

I understand the owners of floodplain land wanting to fill and develop for money, and who work secretly with...

Janelle Saffin MP and Lismore Deputy Mayor Darlene Cook both signed the Social Housing Pledge that supports building 30,000 social housing units over the next four years to help end homelessness. Photo supplied.

The COVID-19 lockdown in Victoria has gone to level four and it highlights the importance of having a safe place to rest your head for everyone.

Recognising this Lismore’s state MP Janelle Saffin (Labor) and Lismore City council’s Deputy Mayor Darlene Cook attended a Homelessness Week event in Lismore yesterday hosted by local community organisation Momentum Collective and both signed the Everybody’s Home Campaign social housing pledge. There were also events held in Casino and Tweed where Tweed Council’s Deputy Mayor Chris Cherry attended and also signed the pledge. Tweed Mayor Katie Milne was unable to attend but signed the pledge in support of the campaign as did the Mayor of Richmond Valley Council Robert Mustow, Mayor of Clarence Valley Council Jim Simmons, MP for Richmond Justine Elliot (Labor) and Greens MP for Ballina Tamara Smith.

The pledge supports the building 30,000 social housing units over the next four years across the country to help end homelessness.

Yet to respond

Member for Page, Kevin Hogan (Nationals), Tweed MP Geoff Provest (Nationals), and MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis (Nationals) have yet to get back to Everybody’s Home regarding their support for the pledge. Also Mayor of Ballina David Wright is yet to respond.

Sarah Dybing, Momentum Collective’s director of community programs said the challenges of drought, bushfires, floods and now COVID-19 have certainly reaffirmed the importance of having a home to stay healthy and well.

‘It remains a harsh reality that homelessness is only increasing. There are more than 116,000 people in Australia – including (as this heat map shows) 800 in the federal electorate of Page – who don’t have a safe, secure place to call home on any given night.’

State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said she was happy to sign a pledge calling on the Federal government to invest in building significantly more social and affordable homes to increase supply.

‘I have long advocated for this, as not only will it address the issue of homelessness but also will create more jobs in the construction industry in the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands,’ Ms Saffin said.

‘With our economy in desperate need of stimulus after the impacts of COVID-19, now is the ideal time to starting building more housing and everyone is a winner; tenants who over time could end up owning those homes,  Federal and State governments, private developers, builders, tradespeople and homewares stores.

‘I thank Momentum Collective for hosting this event to mark Homelessness Week and for what they do supporting people who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.”

Greens MP for Ballina Tamara Smith also signed the pledge in support of the campaign. Photo supplied.

Lack of short and long term housing

The issue was recently highlighted as police, Byron Shire Council, and National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) moved campers on from a site in Brunswick Heads.

At the time they were being moved there were people who had been camping at the site who regional housing services had not been able to provide temporary accommodation for. For some it related to the fact that they had animals and there is only one temporary accommodation service, in Nimbin, that takes people with animals and they were full. For others they were unwilling to leave Byron Shire because they had children or family members who they wouldn’t be able to see if they went to Ballina, Lismore, or Tweed where there is some temporary and long term social housing. There were three to five members of the camp who had accepted offers of temporary housing in Tweed.

NSW housing strategy

Ms Saffin last month made a 19-page submission, Housing Ends Homelessness Report and Advocacy Paper, to the NSW Government’s Housing Strategy for NSW Discussion Paper.

Her submission was informed by a forum she convened in Lismore last August, where representatives from peak organisations discussed the issues of the lack of housing supply, affordable housing and homelessness, and ongoing consultations with those groups and making representations for local people seeking housing.

Daily risk of homelessness

Ms Dybing said Momentum Collective works with many people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness every day.

‘One of the main barriers we face is the critical shortage of social housing,’ she says.

‘This is why under the umbrella of Everybody’s Home campaign we are advocating for an end homelessness in Australia through building more social housing and a greater investment in support.’

When the Federal Budget 2020–21 is handed down this October, the Everybody’s Home Campaign is calling for a budget commitment to building at least 500,000 new social and affordable homes by 2030, with at least 30,000 of those delivered in the next four years. So that every person in Australia has a safe place to call home.

‘This would not only make a major contribution to ending homelessness, but will also create much needed jobs,’ Ms Dybing says.

‘I encourage everyone in the Northern Rivers to join me and the thousands of others to call on our political leaders to make the changes needed to end homelessness. Because everybody needs a home.’

Please also consider signing up to the Everybody’s Home campaign to call for solutions to end homelessness at Everybody’s Home.

 

 

 

 


Support The Echo

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Homelessness is when people are sleeping on the street
    and they don’t have a banket or a sheet,
    in a place or a bed they can not call home
    Well there is in the garden bed you can sleep
    That is why we have garden gnomes.
    As the people on the street turn and become
    inhuman and just like painted concrete domes.

  2. Homelessness for some is built in to our current socio/political/economic system.
    We can’t change one without changing the other.
    We need a revolution not a piecemeal half-hearted pretense at transformation.
    Its like the pseudo-religious, virtuously attending church on Sunday and returning to normal behavior on Monday morning.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Tweed hospital and playgrounds welcomed

State Labor politicians have officially welcomed two upgraded playgrounds and a new hospital built in the Tweed Shire.

Surf’s up for World Pro Adaptive Titles in Byron

Favourable conditions are expected for the World Pro-Adaptive Surfing Titles 2024, to be held at Byron Bay’s Main Beach from today.

More calls for federal intervention in Wallum estate plans

Another ecologist has added their name to the community campaign against development on environmentally sensitive land in Brunswick Heads.

Body found near Byron in search for missing man

A body believed to be that of a man reported missing last week has been found, police on the weekend said.