A team from Rotary in WA travelled to Canberra to present the Eye Contact exhibition to the members of Parliament in Australian Parliament House on International Womens Day, 8th March, in order to get the Federal Government to increase their support for homeless people and in particular older homeless women. Over 49,000 women in Australia face homelessness every night - 41% of these as a result of family violence. Australia has the third highest rate of homelessness in OECD countries. Women over 55 are the fastest growing homeless cohort due to disrupted work lives and an increasingly unaffordable private rental market.
Senator Linda Reynolds opened the event, thanked Rotary for hosting it and introduced Tara Sherwood who spoke on behalf of Rotary. Tara spoke of Rotary's projects to assist homeless people including Socks in the City, Common Ground, "My Home" and Passages. She highlighted how many people are only a few steps away from homelessness. For example, someone could have a good job and rental house but receive a 30 day notice terminating their tenancy and not be able to find a new home in 30 days. With vacancy rates being under 1% in many cities it is extremely difficult for everyone to find housing, and even more so for single parents and low income earners.
Tara introduced David Pearson, the keynote speaker and CEO of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness, who highlighted the personal costs of homelessness and stress caused by decreasing housing affordability, in order to encourage the Parliamentarians to amplify their efforts to address these issues and increase funding for social housing. Mr Pearson further said that homelessness was a growing issue Australia-wide and Australians were becoming increasingly de-sensitised to people living and dying on the streets of our cities and communities. 'This exhibition provides an important opportunity to raise awareness among Parliamentarians that it doesn’t need to be this way. Around the world, there are growing numbers of communities that are ending this type of homelessness and we should seek to do that in Australia too.’
Following David’s address, Hon Patrick Gorman, MP and Hon Michael Sukkar, MP addressed the group and confirmed their commitment to the cause. Approximately 50 people attended the event including about 25 Members of Parliament, and guests from St Vincent de Paul Society, Catholic Care, Uniting Care Australia and the Rotary Club of Murrumbidgee.
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