15 June 2010
Homeless services in demand
A recent survey showed the number of people sleeping rough in Melbourne has remained steady over the past few years but figures from Anglicare Victoria's own homeless services show an alarming rise in demand for food and other necessities. The annual street count was conducted between 5am and 8am Wednesday 9 June and found that 101 people were sleeping rough in Melbourne's CBD. While numbers were up by 26 over 2009, they were lower than the 112 counted in 2008. Anglicare Victoria's CBD based services for homeless people, however, have seen a steady rise in demand over the past few years. At St Peter's Eastern Hill, we operate our Breakfast Program every day of the year and are averaging 42 clients a day. On a busy day we can have up to 80 clients. This represents 10 per cent increase in just three months. At our Flinders' Lane site we offer people a warm shower and the use of our washing machine for their cloths. We also provide information and referrals to other services. In the first quarter of 2010 we helped 1565 people, which is an 11 per cent increase on the previous three months. As seen in the recent article about Michelle, single mother of two living in a car, many people who are homeless are also trying to get on with normal lives. Unfortunately, while homeless, these people are exposed to violence, have limited access to medical treatment, suffer from illness, are discriminated against and find it almost impossible to gain or maintain employment.
RSS | Previous Post | Next Post |
Comments: 0
| Comment on this 
|
