For more than an hour in a western Sydney city precinct, a 55-year-old man who had been sleeping rough lay “stone dead” without anyone noticing him.
A social worker told a NSW parliamentary investigation that there was a percentage of persons sleeping rough who didn’t want to be found.
‘The hiddens are very hard to evaluate, unfortunately,’ Parramatta Mission’s Meals Plus Manager Paul Moussa said on Tuesday.
‘We had one 55-year-old who was lying in the centre of Parramatta for an hour and a half, stone dead, before anyone picked him up.
‘The risk of homelessness is becoming more prevalent now as well, so those numbers are going to increase.’
Mr Moussa was testifying at the upper house inquiry examining homelessness among persons over the age of 55 in NSW, which was holding its second day of hearings in Parramatta.
Christina Hough, Head of Community Accommodation Operations at the Women’s Housing Company, told the inquiry that older people trying to get social housing experience numerous challenges.
Although most individuals understood the importance of giving identification, elderly persons were also obliged to generate new papers, such as ‘home seeker diaries.’
‘It’s the onerous process where you have to jump through hoops,’ she explained.
Many people found the housing application process to be overwhelming.
‘It’s just the unbelievable amount of steps and the evidence when it’s very clear that someone isn’t going to be able to resolve their own housing need.’
According to Caitlin McDowell of the Community Housing Industry Association, research found that NSW needs 317,600 new properties to meet demand for social and affordable housing until 2036.
Families are being pushed out of their homes as the rental market becomes increasingly unsustainable as interest rates increase, inflation rises, and the cost of living rises.
According to the most current Census data, there are approximately 37,000 homeless people in NSW and over 100,000 in Australia.
However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics statistics indicated that over one million dwellings – 10% of the housing supply – were empty on census night last August.
The 2021 Census counted about 11 million private homes, up from 950,712 in 2016.
1,043,776 residences remained vacant, despite the fact that thousands of people struggle to pay their rent or mortgages. The vacant properties were either vacation houses or investment properties, according to the census.
Dr. Liz Allen, a demographer at Australian National University, compared the findings to a “punch in the face.”
‘More than 1 million vacant homes in Australia,’ Dr Allen told ABC radio on June 28.
‘That’s extraordinary when we are grappling with the most difficult housing affordability times we’ve seen and dealing with homelessness on the scale that we are.
‘The unoccupied dwellings are in fact largely potentially an option for housing for people who are in need of secure housing.
‘The fact that people are not living in these homes is an enormous oversight from a policy perspective, particularly when housing affordability and homelessness is such an issue in Australia.’