25 signatures reached
To: State Governments/Councils
Urgent: Reopen unused government owned buildings as crisis housing
We want state governments to reopen unusused government buildings (like hospitals and schools) to be utilised for crisis housing. This is crucial in order to tackle the rapidly rising levels of homelessness in Australia.
Why is this important?
At present, Australia is experiencing a rapidly increasing level of homelessness, which has resulted from a combination of inflation/rising living costs and an extreme shortage of housing (in both the rental and home buyers markets) with some states experiencing a housing availability of only 1%. This phenomenon has created sudden and extreme pressure on both the social housing sector (where some areas have a 15+ year waiting list) and homeless organisations, who have been powerless to be able to locate temporary accommodation solutions.
The result is visible all over Australia. Most of us have noticed the Campervans, Caravans, 4wd's and Sedans lining our streets and parks, which have been hastily converted, often to house entire families. Many of us have noticed tent cities popping up behind buildings or in carparks, in a desperate attempt for families and individuals to find places to sleep for the night.
At the same time, numerous public facilities lay abandoned and empty. Across the last several years, many states have seen the closure of a number of government owned buildings (such as hospitals and schools) and these are not being utilised for anything. Often these buildings already have bathrooms and showers and they contain large quantities of rooms, where simple mattresses/inflatable mattresses and bedding could be placed for people to sleep.
The reality is that at this point in time, Australia is set to experience at least another several interest rate rises, which will push the cost of living through the roof. The increase in our homeless population will literally be in the millions at that stage.
We have a crisis level problem, which requires a crisis level solution. Recently the Government pledged $50 billion to build more community housing. The first part of the problem with this proposal was that it was blocked by the Greens and the second of the issues is that it's simply not a fast enough solution to combat the problem. We need action now and what better way of solving the issue than utilising our available resources?.
Unfortunately with the current direction of our economy, the majority of Australians will either be experiencing housing instability in the coming months, or they'll know someone who is. So, please get behind this petition. Sign it, spread it, make it go viral until we have enough signatures that state governments can't turn their backs on it.
Thank you.