Lasting solutions to homelessness

#918 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 29 Jun 2014.

Sydney’s Wesley Mission will expand its homeless services particularly to families and young people under the NSW Government’s new homelessness reform package.

Wesley Mission CEO, the Rev Dr Keith Garner, said almost one third of homeless Australians who receive support are homeless families – and that number was expected to grow.

Dr Garner said he was pleased to see more state funding directed to suburban and regional areas.  He said Wesley Mission had witnessed a drift of homeless people from the suburbs to the inner-city and had long advocated for a more considered approach to this trend.

“We are now moving from ad hoc and piecemeal approaches to homelessness to a more strategic and cohesive model,” he said.

Under the new package, Wesley Mission will provide homeless support services and accommodation for families in the inner city, Parramatta, Holroyd, the Hills, Fairfield and Liverpool Local Government Areas, and on the Central Coast.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.