News

Open letter to the Hon Scott Morrison, MP

Re: you do your budget planning on  a four-yearly cycle; please let us do the same

An open letter to the Hon Scott Morrison, MP, Minister for Social Services, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra was published in the Australian, Monday February 9th, 2015.

The letter was signed by 59 signatories of peak Housing and Homelessness services across Australia.

Read the letter in full.

Andrews asks Canberra to renew homelessness funding

Article by Clay Lucas City Editor, The Age 3rd February 2015.  Image: Nyakong and her five-month-old son Daniel have secured crisis housing for three months at a Hanover centre after all other options fell through. Photo: Jason South

Prime Minister Tony Abbott must continue funding for programs that look after some of Victoria's most vulnerable women and children, especially those at risk of family violence, Premier Daniel Andrews says. Mr Andrews on Tuesday urged Mr Abbott and Social Services Minister Scott Morrison to renew funding for the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, first struck by the Rudd government in 2009.

The Abbott government extended that agreement for a year in 2014, but it runs out on June 30 this year – leaving many in the welfare sector in limbo. Read more

Rethink required re housing policy for ageing population

New report: Australia needs to radically rethink its housing policy for ageing population

Date January 29, 2015 by Gareth Hutchens

Read the story as it appeared on-line in the Age.

Left out in the cold by a state reluctant to invest

Article by Kenneth Davidson in The Age, Monday 26th January 2015

Illustration: Jim Pavlidis.

"Homelessness is only the tip of the iceberg of the growing failure of governments – state, federal, Labor and Coalition – to meet the basic shelter needs of the bottom 40 per cent of low-income households. According to the Productivity Commission's 2014 Report on Government Services, the proportion of low-income households in rental distress in Australia grew from 35 per cent in 2008 to 41 per cent in 2012....."

Read  the article as it appeared in the Age

7.30 Report on Friday 9th January

 The 7.30 Report  on the ABC  rang the story  “Older Australian women becoming homeless at increasing rates” on Friday 9th January 2015.

Reporter: Amy Bainbridge.  More older Australian women are becoming homeless and advocacy groups say Federal Government funding cuts to the homeless sector will only make the problem worse. follow the link to the story with transcript:

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4160205.htm?site=perth  

A new lease on life

John Dagge, Herald Sun Business, January 03, 2015 

WHEN a series of health issues prompted John and Diana Davison to downsize from their Langwarrin family home, they initially considered buying a smaller stand-alone unit or moving into a traditional retirement village.

Instead, the retired accountant and schoolteacher settled on a portable factory-built home in a manufactured housing estate in Cranbourne, buying the house and securing a 90-year lease over the land.

“We looked at a retirement village but the people there were just too old for us, whereas here there are people who still work,” Diana, 70, tells BusinessDaily.

Read the full story  here

Preventing Homelessness in Older Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities Project 2015

Preventing Homelessness in Older Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities Project 2015. This exciting 12 month project is a joint initiative of HAAG (Housing and the Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria.

To read further about the project,     click here.

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