Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Homeless People in Australia living in Cheap Motels
The Sunday Telegraph July 04, 2010 12:00AM
THIS is home for desperate families in overcrowded western Sydney - a tiny room in a budget motel with no kitchen, no laundry and little hope.
Faced with a chronic shortage of public housing and the tightest rental market in history, desperate parents have been forced to raise their children in the motor-inns scattered along the busy Hume Highway.
Some have spent nearly two years there as "guests".
The Sunday Telegraph last week visited four motels - the Pop-In at Casula, the Fontainebleau Motor Inn and Liverpool City Motel at Liverpool, and the Grandstand Motel at Warwick Farm - and found a dozen families who had taken up residence because they could not find a unit or a house.
Families eat, sleep and play in the same tiny space. In one case, five people were sleeping in a single room no larger than 20s qm - their possessions stuffed in garbage bags in one corner.
Related Coverage
Editorial: Home truths
Home truth about crisis in housing Daily Telegraph, 6 hours ago
500 child refugees in detention Daily Telegraph, 21 Jun 2010
Asylum seekers given all clear Courier Mail, 25 May 2010
Abuse victims in plea for help Adelaide Now, 14 Apr 2010
Boat arrivals spill into Sydney Daily Telegraph, 27 Mar 2010
A tiny bar fridge stocked with milk, bread and butter, rows of shoes lined along the floor since there is no cupboard, and children's toys strewn across threadbare carpets are the only signs of normal family life.
Casula couple Jasmine Wortmann and Kevin Hussell have been bouncing from motel to motel for the past 14 months with their two daughters, Kaitlin, aged 3, and Emily, 1.
They bear the brunt of the crisis that new Prime Minister Julia Gillard alluded to last week when she announced she was putting the brakes on the nation's population growth.
"If you spoke to the people of western Sydney, for example, about a 'big Australia', they would laugh at you and ask you a very simple question: 'Where will these 40 million people go?'," Ms Gillard said.
Mr Hussell and his partner, who are on the waiting list for emergency public housing, file at least 10 private rental applications each week to no avail.
"They keep knocking us back because we have kids," Mr Hussell said. "There are stacks of people in the same boat but they just push us aside.
"Nobody wants to look at us. You try so hard, but you keep getting kicked in the teeth and you get so depressed, you don't want to try anymore."
Their meagre finances are chewed up in a vicious cycle.
Mr Hassell, who is unemployed, says the couple pay $350 a week for their motel room and, since it doesn't have a kitchenette, the family must eat out every day - an expensive option that chews up their $1300 fortnightly Centrelink payment.
"It's very hard and you have to take [each] day as it comes. We make sure the kids eat before we eat. Some days, we go without so the kids can eat," he said.
Their experience is shared by single mother Haleigh Crotty, who has also set up home at the same Casula motel, the Pop-In.
The 23-year-old and daughters Taleah, 6, and Mylea, 1, have been on the NSW Housing Commission waiting list since last November. "I don't want to live here but I have no other choice," Ms Crotty said.
"You don't even want to apply for a house because you don't want that rejection. It makes you think, 'What's wrong with you, and why don't they accept you?', but it all comes down to money." The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates almost 50,000 people in NSW are on waiting lists for public housing accommodation.
Its latest Public Rental Housing report showed that NSW had the highest rates of overcrowding and under-utilisation.
More than 1500 applicants had waited more than two years for a home, the report found.
The Salvation Army last week released research showing the numbers of homeless people seeking help had surged 65 per cent in the past two years.
In western Sydney alone, there was an 80 per cent jump. Real Estate Institute of NSW president Wayne Stewart said the average waiting time for families seeking public housing was now four years, while poor government policies, rising rents and interest-rate rises had hit the private market.
The vacancy rate has now dropped to 1.2 per cent (3 per cent is when supply and demand are in balance), leading to rental auctions and long lines of disappointed applicants.
Mr Stewart said some people lived rough in their cars or moved back in with elderly parents.
"It's amazing how many families are one pay packet away from homelessness," he said.
THIS is home for desperate families in overcrowded western Sydney - a tiny room in a budget motel with no kitchen, no laundry and little hope.
Faced with a chronic shortage of public housing and the tightest rental market in history, desperate parents have been forced to raise their children in the motor-inns scattered along the busy Hume Highway.
Some have spent nearly two years there as "guests".
The Sunday Telegraph last week visited four motels - the Pop-In at Casula, the Fontainebleau Motor Inn and Liverpool City Motel at Liverpool, and the Grandstand Motel at Warwick Farm - and found a dozen families who had taken up residence because they could not find a unit or a house.
Families eat, sleep and play in the same tiny space. In one case, five people were sleeping in a single room no larger than 20s qm - their possessions stuffed in garbage bags in one corner.
Related Coverage
Editorial: Home truths
Home truth about crisis in housing Daily Telegraph, 6 hours ago
500 child refugees in detention Daily Telegraph, 21 Jun 2010
Asylum seekers given all clear Courier Mail, 25 May 2010
Abuse victims in plea for help Adelaide Now, 14 Apr 2010
Boat arrivals spill into Sydney Daily Telegraph, 27 Mar 2010
A tiny bar fridge stocked with milk, bread and butter, rows of shoes lined along the floor since there is no cupboard, and children's toys strewn across threadbare carpets are the only signs of normal family life.
Casula couple Jasmine Wortmann and Kevin Hussell have been bouncing from motel to motel for the past 14 months with their two daughters, Kaitlin, aged 3, and Emily, 1.
They bear the brunt of the crisis that new Prime Minister Julia Gillard alluded to last week when she announced she was putting the brakes on the nation's population growth.
"If you spoke to the people of western Sydney, for example, about a 'big Australia', they would laugh at you and ask you a very simple question: 'Where will these 40 million people go?'," Ms Gillard said.
Mr Hussell and his partner, who are on the waiting list for emergency public housing, file at least 10 private rental applications each week to no avail.
"They keep knocking us back because we have kids," Mr Hussell said. "There are stacks of people in the same boat but they just push us aside.
"Nobody wants to look at us. You try so hard, but you keep getting kicked in the teeth and you get so depressed, you don't want to try anymore."
Their meagre finances are chewed up in a vicious cycle.
Mr Hassell, who is unemployed, says the couple pay $350 a week for their motel room and, since it doesn't have a kitchenette, the family must eat out every day - an expensive option that chews up their $1300 fortnightly Centrelink payment.
"It's very hard and you have to take [each] day as it comes. We make sure the kids eat before we eat. Some days, we go without so the kids can eat," he said.
Their experience is shared by single mother Haleigh Crotty, who has also set up home at the same Casula motel, the Pop-In.
The 23-year-old and daughters Taleah, 6, and Mylea, 1, have been on the NSW Housing Commission waiting list since last November. "I don't want to live here but I have no other choice," Ms Crotty said.
"You don't even want to apply for a house because you don't want that rejection. It makes you think, 'What's wrong with you, and why don't they accept you?', but it all comes down to money." The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates almost 50,000 people in NSW are on waiting lists for public housing accommodation.
Its latest Public Rental Housing report showed that NSW had the highest rates of overcrowding and under-utilisation.
More than 1500 applicants had waited more than two years for a home, the report found.
The Salvation Army last week released research showing the numbers of homeless people seeking help had surged 65 per cent in the past two years.
In western Sydney alone, there was an 80 per cent jump. Real Estate Institute of NSW president Wayne Stewart said the average waiting time for families seeking public housing was now four years, while poor government policies, rising rents and interest-rate rises had hit the private market.
The vacancy rate has now dropped to 1.2 per cent (3 per cent is when supply and demand are in balance), leading to rental auctions and long lines of disappointed applicants.
Mr Stewart said some people lived rough in their cars or moved back in with elderly parents.
"It's amazing how many families are one pay packet away from homelessness," he said.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Our first feed
Well we got our first feed happening. It was a good feeling finally getting through the first night. We feed about thirty people and they were so grateful. There were lots of children and the parents made sure they ate.
I and all involved, and believe me it was a collaborative effort felt really good about the feeding.
I and all involved, and believe me it was a collaborative effort felt really good about the feeding.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Proverty in Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poverty in Australia is a contentious political issue. There is little doubt there is absolute poverty in Australia especially in Aboriginal communities.
However many on the Left of Australian politics argue that relative poverty ought to be the appropriate measure.[citation needed] This looks at the percentage of the population that earns well under average annual earnings. Many on the right of Australian politics argue that this relative measure is a mistake because it hides the existence of absolute poverty in Australia by looking only at those who, for whatever reason, earn relatively little.[citation needed]
Contents [hide]
1 The changing face of poverty in Australia
2 2001 poverty line
3 2006 UN Human Poverty Index
4 2007 child poverty
5 CIA world factbook
6 Prime Minister target
7 What is poverty?
8 Poverty in Indigenous Australia
9 See also
10 References
[edit]The changing face of poverty in Australia
Since 2006, the notion that “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” has gained increasing public and media attention. Often, different conclusions are reached depending on how poverty is measured. It is clear that Australia's middle class is shrinking, and while the majority of those living in poverty are probably not becoming poorer in absolute terms, they are becoming more numerous. However, those in the bottom 5% of income earners in Australia have, in fact, become poorer over the past decade. Poverty in Australia today is complex and changing.
[edit]2001 poverty line
According to the Smith Family in 2001.
13.0% of Australians live in poverty (7.47 million).
2.9% of children live in poverty.
6.8% of single parent families live in poverty.
This report highlighted the relationship between poverty and unemployment with the under-employed facing greater risks of poverty particularly with the increasing casualisation of the workforce.
According to the census figures, Australia's population during census night 2001 was 18,972,350.[1]
[edit]2006 UN Human Poverty Index
The last report, 2006, The UN Human Poverty Index (HPI) for 2006 only has a ranking for 18 of the 21 countries with the highest Human Development Index.
In the report, Australia is ranked 14th in the OECD, with a HPI of 12.8.[2]
The value for the 'Population below 50% of median income (%)' for Australia was 14.3% (2.84 Million).
According to the census figures, Australias population during census night 2006 was 19,855,288 [3]
[edit]2007 child poverty
Australia’s child poverty rate falls in the middle of the international rankings. In 2007, UNICEF’s report on child poverty in OECD countries revealed that Australia had the 14th highest child poverty rate.[4]
[edit]CIA world factbook
Poverty figures for Australia are presently unavailable according to the CIA World Factbook (View Page[5]).
[edit]Prime Minister target
In 1987 there was scepticism when the former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke said:
"...by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty".[6][7]
Bob Hawke since decided on a poverty figure of 1 million Australians.[8] This is lower than nearly any other country on the list.
[edit]What is poverty?
There are two main ways of defining poverty. The World Bank considers a person to be in absolute poverty if his or her consumption or income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. Robert McNamara, the former President of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as “…a condition so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency.” [9] In industrial countries such as Australia however, people in poverty often don’t look poor in this absolute sense. Therefore, poverty is more often measured in relative terms, where a family’s income is low relative to that of other families. The minimum level of income against which income is considered is called the poverty line.
Map of world poverty by country, showing percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. Australia ranks very high with many OECD countries.
Researchers argue about where this line should be drawn. The Smith Family and NATSEM (The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling) report in 2000 indicated as many as 1 in 8 Australians are experiencing poverty. The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) argues that their research indicates the figure is 1 in 12 and even could be as low as 1 in 20.
The Smith family researchers “added up all the pay packets in Australia and divided them by the number of wage earners. That average is then halved to find the poverty line” (the Mean).
The CIS “ranks all the pay packets in descending order finds the wage in the very middle of that range and then halves that… wage to find the poverty line” (the Median).[10] This gives very different results as seen in Figure 1 below.[11]
The problem of these measures is that they focus exclusively on income. But poverty is also defined through other indicators such as education, health, access to services and infrastructure, vulnerability, social exclusion, access to social capital, etc. The most widely used indicator to take non-income factors into consideration is the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled yearly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For advanced economies, this index takes into consideration health (probability at birth of not surviving to age 60), knowledge (percentage of adults lacking functional literacy skills) and social exclusion (long-term unemployment rate). Australia ranks very high on this global index.
[edit]Poverty in Indigenous Australia
Indigenous and minority groups are sometimes referred to as the “Fourth World.” They experience a lower life expectancy, higher rates of infant mortality, higher unemployment rates, a lower general standard of living (health, housing), high rates of arrest and imprisonment, plus problems of alcohol and other substance abuses.
Australian Indigenous people are no exception. In 2000, life expectancy of Indigenous Australians was some 20 years below that of other Australians.[12] All the socioeconomic indicators such as income, employment, housing, education and health show considerable disparities between Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. In fact, Australian Indigenous poverty ranks alongside countries as poor as Bangladesh where absolute poverty is real.
[edit]See also
Homelessness in Australia
Home ownership in Australia
Median household income in Australia and New Zealand
Poverty by country
[edit]References
^ Australian Bureau of Statistics - 2015.0 - Census of Population and Housing -Summary of Findings
^ United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2006, p 295
^ 2006 Census QuickStats : Australia
^ UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries, 2007, p. 6.
^ CIA The World Factbook
^ ABC Mar 2, 2006 - Govt criticised for poor record on reducing poverty
^ ABC Jun 24, 2004 - No Aussie child should live in poverty: church leaders
^ Hawke says 1m still live in poverty. 29/07/2005. ABC News Online
^ "Poverty". Worldbank.org. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
^ abc.net.au/am/s459428.htm[dead link]
^ Source: AusStats 6523.0 Income Distribution, Australia.
^ ABS 3302.0
[show]
v • d • e
Poverty in Oceania
[show]
v • d • e
Australia topics
Categories: Australian society | Poverty by country | Health in Australia
Poverty in Australia is a contentious political issue. There is little doubt there is absolute poverty in Australia especially in Aboriginal communities.
However many on the Left of Australian politics argue that relative poverty ought to be the appropriate measure.[citation needed] This looks at the percentage of the population that earns well under average annual earnings. Many on the right of Australian politics argue that this relative measure is a mistake because it hides the existence of absolute poverty in Australia by looking only at those who, for whatever reason, earn relatively little.[citation needed]
Contents [hide]
1 The changing face of poverty in Australia
2 2001 poverty line
3 2006 UN Human Poverty Index
4 2007 child poverty
5 CIA world factbook
6 Prime Minister target
7 What is poverty?
8 Poverty in Indigenous Australia
9 See also
10 References
[edit]The changing face of poverty in Australia
Since 2006, the notion that “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” has gained increasing public and media attention. Often, different conclusions are reached depending on how poverty is measured. It is clear that Australia's middle class is shrinking, and while the majority of those living in poverty are probably not becoming poorer in absolute terms, they are becoming more numerous. However, those in the bottom 5% of income earners in Australia have, in fact, become poorer over the past decade. Poverty in Australia today is complex and changing.
[edit]2001 poverty line
According to the Smith Family in 2001.
13.0% of Australians live in poverty (7.47 million).
2.9% of children live in poverty.
6.8% of single parent families live in poverty.
This report highlighted the relationship between poverty and unemployment with the under-employed facing greater risks of poverty particularly with the increasing casualisation of the workforce.
According to the census figures, Australia's population during census night 2001 was 18,972,350.[1]
[edit]2006 UN Human Poverty Index
The last report, 2006, The UN Human Poverty Index (HPI) for 2006 only has a ranking for 18 of the 21 countries with the highest Human Development Index.
In the report, Australia is ranked 14th in the OECD, with a HPI of 12.8.[2]
The value for the 'Population below 50% of median income (%)' for Australia was 14.3% (2.84 Million).
According to the census figures, Australias population during census night 2006 was 19,855,288 [3]
[edit]2007 child poverty
Australia’s child poverty rate falls in the middle of the international rankings. In 2007, UNICEF’s report on child poverty in OECD countries revealed that Australia had the 14th highest child poverty rate.[4]
[edit]CIA world factbook
Poverty figures for Australia are presently unavailable according to the CIA World Factbook (View Page[5]).
[edit]Prime Minister target
In 1987 there was scepticism when the former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke said:
"...by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty".[6][7]
Bob Hawke since decided on a poverty figure of 1 million Australians.[8] This is lower than nearly any other country on the list.
[edit]What is poverty?
There are two main ways of defining poverty. The World Bank considers a person to be in absolute poverty if his or her consumption or income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. Robert McNamara, the former President of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as “…a condition so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency.” [9] In industrial countries such as Australia however, people in poverty often don’t look poor in this absolute sense. Therefore, poverty is more often measured in relative terms, where a family’s income is low relative to that of other families. The minimum level of income against which income is considered is called the poverty line.
Map of world poverty by country, showing percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. Australia ranks very high with many OECD countries.
Researchers argue about where this line should be drawn. The Smith Family and NATSEM (The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling) report in 2000 indicated as many as 1 in 8 Australians are experiencing poverty. The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) argues that their research indicates the figure is 1 in 12 and even could be as low as 1 in 20.
The Smith family researchers “added up all the pay packets in Australia and divided them by the number of wage earners. That average is then halved to find the poverty line” (the Mean).
The CIS “ranks all the pay packets in descending order finds the wage in the very middle of that range and then halves that… wage to find the poverty line” (the Median).[10] This gives very different results as seen in Figure 1 below.[11]
The problem of these measures is that they focus exclusively on income. But poverty is also defined through other indicators such as education, health, access to services and infrastructure, vulnerability, social exclusion, access to social capital, etc. The most widely used indicator to take non-income factors into consideration is the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled yearly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For advanced economies, this index takes into consideration health (probability at birth of not surviving to age 60), knowledge (percentage of adults lacking functional literacy skills) and social exclusion (long-term unemployment rate). Australia ranks very high on this global index.
[edit]Poverty in Indigenous Australia
Indigenous and minority groups are sometimes referred to as the “Fourth World.” They experience a lower life expectancy, higher rates of infant mortality, higher unemployment rates, a lower general standard of living (health, housing), high rates of arrest and imprisonment, plus problems of alcohol and other substance abuses.
Australian Indigenous people are no exception. In 2000, life expectancy of Indigenous Australians was some 20 years below that of other Australians.[12] All the socioeconomic indicators such as income, employment, housing, education and health show considerable disparities between Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. In fact, Australian Indigenous poverty ranks alongside countries as poor as Bangladesh where absolute poverty is real.
[edit]See also
Homelessness in Australia
Home ownership in Australia
Median household income in Australia and New Zealand
Poverty by country
[edit]References
^ Australian Bureau of Statistics - 2015.0 - Census of Population and Housing -Summary of Findings
^ United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2006, p 295
^ 2006 Census QuickStats : Australia
^ UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries, 2007, p. 6.
^ CIA The World Factbook
^ ABC Mar 2, 2006 - Govt criticised for poor record on reducing poverty
^ ABC Jun 24, 2004 - No Aussie child should live in poverty: church leaders
^ Hawke says 1m still live in poverty. 29/07/2005. ABC News Online
^ "Poverty". Worldbank.org. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
^ abc.net.au/am/s459428.htm[dead link]
^ Source: AusStats 6523.0 Income Distribution, Australia.
^ ABS 3302.0
[show]
v • d • e
Poverty in Oceania
[show]
v • d • e
Australia topics
Categories: Australian society | Poverty by country | Health in Australia
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