World Homeless Day

October 10, 2018

Today is World Homeless Day. 

The Inaugural World Homeless Day was marked on the 10th of October 2010, and since then it has been observed on every continent except Antarctica. The day’s purpose  is to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness.

Homelessness is more than the visible phenomenon of rough sleeping. Even in Melbourne’s CBD only 22% of homeless people are sleeping on the street, while for Victoria as a whole, only 5% of homeless people are rough sleeping. The majority of homeless people are either in crisis accommodation or severely overcrowded dwellings. 

Regional Victoria also has a large number of people who are homeless, with the electorates of Shepparton, Geelong and Ballarat (Wendouree) having numbers of homelessness that exceed the median numbers in metropolitan areas. This excellent Homelessness Heat Map produced by the Council to Homeless Persons using ABS data, is the most complete picture of homelessness across Victoria – but even this only shows those people who were counted on Census night 2016.

A HOME is more than a house – it encompasses community, affordability, accessibility and safety, yet currently over 116,000 Australians are excluded from that right. Working towards affordable, well designed, sustainable and connected housing for all is HOME’s mission – to make a real difference to the communities we serve.