'They have nowhere to go': The Australians at the centre of a housing 'emergency'
The number of women and girls seeking assistance who were already homeless increased by 20 per cent — from 24,517 in May 2022 to 29,449 in March this year.
"What that reveals is more women and girls are not getting the support they need to avoid homelessness," Kate Colvin, CEO of Homelessness Australia, told SBS News. "They're not getting early intervention, and they're coming to homeless services already having exhausted perhaps their friends, their family networks. "They have nowhere to go. And then, the reality is homeless services don't have the resources they need to provide safe accommodation for women and girls in that situation." The number of women and girls seeking support who were at risk of homelessness was also up 8 per cent.
Overall, it said around 45 per cent of these women and girls have experienced domestic and family violence, referencing AIHW data.
'Emergency proportions' Colvin said homelessness across the country has reached "emergency proportions". "We have hundreds of people every day pushed out of the housing market into homelessness, and then not able to get back into housing," she said.
"The situation just keeps getting worse and worse."
The peak body attributes women and families being pushed further into crisis to rising rents, domestic violence and a lack of early intervention. Meanwhile, overwhelmed services are being forced to make difficult decisions around who to help and who to turn away. Minister for Housing, Homelessness and Cities Clare O'Neil said Australia is "confronting a housing crisis which has been building for 40 years".
"It's affecting the lives of millions of Australians, and the most urgent and disturbing part of it is the rising homelessness all of us can see in our own communities," she said.
Our staff are 'forced to triage' Frances Crimmins is the CEO of YWCA Canberra, a specialist women and children's homeless service provider. "Normally, what we find is that if they haven't already presented with domestic and family violence as the cause of their homelessness [we later learn after building trust] it has often formed part of the reason they have become homeless," Crimmins said. YWCA Canberra leases 60 properties from the ACT government, and has 19 of its own — some of which have been provided by the federal government specifically for women and children escaping domestic and family violence. They are all full. "The current level of demand just keeps on increasing, and so our staff are forced to triage," Crimmins said. Triaging refers to making decisions about which clients to prioritise in offering support.
Supporting women and children escaping violence may include safety planning and preparing a vacant property. If there is no accommodation, it may involve safety planning to return to living with a perpetrator until housing becomes available.
For some victim-survivors, a lack of housing options may lead them to stay in, or return to, a violent relationship. Source: AAP / Diego Fedele Family and domestic violence is the main reason women and children leave their homes, according to the AIHW. Many of them experience housing insecurity, and in some cases, homelessness. For some victim-survivors, a lack of housing options may lead them to stay in, or return to, a violent relationship. "That's a really sad fact … it can often be known that [a woman] might know the perpetrator's behaviour, and that can often be less risky than the unknown, which is sleeping rough or in a car with your children," Crimmins said. When it comes to transitioning clients out into the community, Crimmins said a lack of social and affordable housing has left them "stuck".
"It's nearly impossible for us, currently, to transition women with three or more children," she said.
"We are stuck. We know we have other women we need to accommodate, but we can't exit those women and children back into homelessness. That's what the staff are managing every day." Crimmins called for a "big uptick" in social housing to provide more exit pathways.
"We need it urgently," she said.
Calls for more social housing, a national plan O'Neil said the government has a particular focus on crisis housing. "We're making a record investment of over $1.2 billion in crisis housing and last term, we delivered a 45 per cent boost to rent assistance which helped a million Australians struggling to pay their rent," she said. She said the most important action for the Commonwealth is building more social and affordable homes. "We're delivering 55,000 new desperately needed social and affordable homes — 28,000 are under construction or planning right now. Every one of these homes will change the life of an Australian family." Colvin said the government's commitments are "certainly very welcome" after over a decade of underinvestment in social and affording housing.
"The thing is they're not sufficient to catch up to where we need to be," she said.
The latest annual report from the government's National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, released in May, said a "significant uplift" was needed to support Australians who depend on social and affordable housing. In 2021, this proportion of households was around 4 per cent. The report recommended governments and the private and not-for-profit sectors commit to restore the proportion of the housing stock over the medium term to 6 per cent. A long-term target should be as high as 10 per cent, it said. Homelessness Australia is also calling for an increase in social housing to 10 per cent of all dwellings — one of three "critical actions" included in its plan to address rising homelessness that was launched on Tuesday. The peak body is also calling for a national housing and homelessness plan to set reduction targets and guide major reforms, along with new investment in services in partnership with states and territories. The government is developing a housing and homelessness plan as part of its housing strategy, with consultation taking place in its first term. It's understood this work remains a priority. If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
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- News.com.au
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News.com.au
an hour ago
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How Australia is failing dying children
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'What's lost is the chance to make memories, and spend the last days, months or years doing what matters most with your loved ones.' For Sara, it's time for the health workforce to face the uncomfortable truth. 'It's about the clinician saying, 'This is not a failure.' It's not a failure to acknowledge that maybe time might be short.' Her hope, like Alix's, is for a cultural shift — one that finally brings children's palliative care out of the shadows. 'If we start teaching kids about death, since they are little, they will take it as natural from childhood into adulthood,' Alix added. And, perhaps, families like hers will no longer have to navigate the unimaginable alone. For anyone seeking further information and resources about paediatric palliative care, start here.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Quest for agelessness drives longevity boom — and $2.5 trillion global industry
It's a characteristically chilly Melbourne winter morning and tech boss Tristan Sternson is starting the day by plunging into an ice bath. Just how icy? A bone-chilling 3 degrees Celsius — for 4 minutes. Next follows a "strict routine" of exercise, supplements, IV infusions and various treatments like saunas, cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy … all in his quest to feel better and live longer. "Things like cryotherapy, which is minus 165C in a cryotherapy chamber for three and a half minutes, which is quite extreme," he tells The Business from the longevity clinic he co-founded and where he partakes in many of the treatments. "I do red light in a full body machine where you lie down. Kind of like a cocoon. "Red light [is also good] for your hair to make sure your hair doesn't thin as you get older." Mr Sternson admits his wellness club, Super Young, is more of a passion project than anything. "My wife will call it an obsession," he said. Mr Sternson is 45 but says he has a "biological age" of 34 — a metric used by those in the longevity space based on a series of tests. He tracks 65 different markers via blood tests and completes a range of what he calls more "extreme" treatments every few months, some of which he flies to the US for as they are not available in Australia: Super Young is one of many health and wellness businesses vying for a slice of what consulting firm McKinsey says is a $2.5 trillion global consumer wellness industry. It's driven by a growing demand from (often wealthy) individuals to measure and optimise personal health — and a willingness to pay big bucks to do so. The "preventative wellness" or longevity movement's signature alternative health practices have been popularised by US figures including biohackers Bryan Johnson, Peter Attia and even socialite Paris Hilton. It grew in the wellness heartland of Los Angeles and has since spread to Australia. The growing popularity of ice baths and infrared saunas Down Under has made them a more common sight in gyms and spas in the wealthier enclaves of many cities. The explosion of an industry full of alternative health practices has been met with scepticism by some in mainstream medical fields. "I think the evidence base for a lot of them is minimal and, where there is evidence, it's often for particular parts of the population and not for the general population," the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Michael Wright, tells The Business. For those who want to dip their toes in the longevity pool, Dr Wright advises a healthy dose of scepticism and careful thought before doing extra tests or investigations clinics might offer. "I often talk to patients when they are talking about these tests and ask them, 'What's the cost of this?' and, 'Who is most likely to benefit? Is it you or is it the person who is selling the test?'" He notes the principle in medicine of "first, do no harm" and questions whether the extensive blood work and diagnostic tests often associated with longevity screening and measurement fit that bill. "Potentially, if you're investigating unnecessarily, you're putting people through stress and also economic impacts if the tests are unnecessary and that's something we should try and avoid," he said. But Mr Sternson says the treatments at his wellness hub are backed by evidence and there is strong demand from consumers willing to pay for detailed analysis of their health and personalised programs. "Each machine or each protocol that we have, every supplement that we offer, will have some research back behind it," he argues. But he does acknowledge the difficulty of establishing evidence given "you haven't had anyone live to 150 that's gone through these sorts of protocols". Another Australian company riding the trillion-dollar wellness wave is high-profile startup Eucalyptus, which launched a longevity app for men last year. They pulled the pin soon after, with the pricey subscription fee a major factor, but are hoping to relaunch in Australia next year at a lower cost with more automation. "What we learnt was that patients really had a curiosity about their own diagnostics, were really keen to make behavioural change," Eucalyptus chief executive and co-founder Tim Doyle explains in an interview with ABC News. The company, which is backed by Woolworths and Blackbird, runs a suite of health platforms and has grown rapidly — largely thanks to the rise of its weight-loss service, which enables users to access drugs like Ozempic via a telehealth app. Mr Doyle says Eucalyptus's digital platform made the experience of prescribing the drugs to patients seamless. "People are seeking convenience, quality of care, in a way that suits their lifestyle and so I think what we've been able to tap into is the evolving trends there," he said. Ozempic and similar prescription weight-loss drugs shot to prominence over the past few years and Eucalyptus has become a major player in the weight-loss market thanks to its provision of those drugs. "I think we're an evolution of where health care will definitely go," Mr Doyle said. Mr Doyle said more than 100,000 customers globally had accessed the weight-loss drugs through the company. "I think ultimately these medications are going to change the world for the better," he asserts. "We provide a set of services that give you the best chance of hitting your weight-loss goal and maintaining weight loss and I think the reality is that for most patients that are suffering with obesity, there are serious health considerations for that." However, medical bodies have been critical of the app's online prescription model for pharmaceuticals. "We do have to be really careful of other providers who are potentially fragmenting care, because it's important that whoever else you see in the health system that they confirm and share information with your usual GP," the RACGP's Dr Wright said. "There's no substitute for the quality of care that you get from a GP who knows you and your history. So although these other services are available, they don't replace what you should get and what you can get from your GP. "I think that's a fair criticism," Mr Doyle acknowledges, though he notes that "a lot of patients don't have a regular relationship with a standard GP that they live their whole lives with. Like Eucalyptus, Super Young's co-founder said they were not trying to compete with established medicine but offer something different, without adding an extra burden or cost to publicly funded healthcare. "We're kind of an adjunct. We help out and we can kind of take the strain off it a little bit, because you can help people prevent certain illnesses," Mr Sternson says. "I don't think we're disrupting the current healthcare system … the current healthcare system is really, really good when you're sick. He says the industry can cater for well individuals willing to pay money for testing privately to optimise their health, rather than go through Medicare. "Our medical system can't support every single person that comes through and says, 'Hey, I'm feeling 100 per cent well, can you test all my blood markers so I make sure I don't drop off to 90 per cent next week?" he says. "Doctors just don't have the capacity and time for that locally in Australia and fair enough — that's probably an area where longevity has really come into it."
