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Last week several students were asked to leave Charles Sturt University Port Macquarie library when staff discovered the group had been sleeping there. The students said they felt the building was the safest space to stay after they became homeless. They’re part of a unique sector of homelessness – the tertiary student.
Recent census data has revealed more than 10-thousand uni or tafe students are considered homeless. That’s 10-per cent of Australia’s homeless population. Just under 3000 lived in either homeless facilities or boarding houses, over a thousand were couch surfing, and 81 slept rough in their cars. The rest lived in severely overcrowded homes.
Council to Homeless Persons CEO Jenny Smith says there’s a significant lack of affordable housing options available to tertiary students. There are also concerns government rent assistance payments aren’t keeping up with rising rent rates.
We really need governments to be accepting that the market is just not catering for people on the lower and lowest incomes.
Smith says a new federal government-led ‘National Housing and Homelessness Agreement’ will not add an additional cent of funding to what support groups have been receiving since 2009/2010.
This issue seems to shake up the ‘traditional’ image we have of the homeless – so how should we use that in our response?
