Editorial – SSH March 2010 - Homelessness

Café Cana (Cana Communities) in Pitt Street, Redfern, hosted a special breakfast for the counters. There was a record turnout to the brekky. And the results are in. Numbers of homeless are up on August 2009 figures and on this time last year. In total, 888 homeless people were counted in February – a significant increase on February 2009 figures (764).

Maintaining support and services for those who find themselves homeless, either in the short or longer term, is essential – urgent.

Of related concern are recent comments attributed to the Leader of the Federal Opposition who has accused the long-term unemployed, arguably those most at risk of homelessness, of being “job snobs” who are “too fussy for too long about the sorts of jobs they’ll do”.

Tony Abbott, apparently performing well in the polls, has said that whether welfare recipients go to work is determined “mainly by what goes on inside the welfare system and not by economic or social conditions”. He has criticised the Rudd Government for its mild softening of mutual obligation requirements for single parents and job seekers.

Abbott says that job seekers should undertake work-for-the-dole after only three months, and, according to alleged leaks from within the Liberal Party, that he supports the abolishment of hundreds of thousands of disabilities pensions, the raising of the pension age and the retirement age, and holding back 50 per cent of welfare payments to families with kids to ensure it’s spent on food and essentials.

Is all this a concern? Yes, it is.

Source: South Sydney Herald March 2010 www.southsydneyherald.com.au