TEEN SLEEPING ROUGH ON AFFLUENT STREETS ‘DEEPLY WRONG'

Jason Dowling Published: June 7, 2012 Having a tough day at work? Worried about the utility bills or what to do this weekend? Spare a thought for a moment about others who have bigger struggles to deal with, like where to find a blanket and a safe place to shelter for the night. Teenagers are among the more than 100 people sleeping rough on Melbourne's cold and bleak winter streets. A new count of homeless people organised by Melbourne City Council on Wednesday morning between 4.30am and 8.30am detected 101 people sleeping in places such as park benches and doorways. Volunteers surveyed 54 of those sleeping rough, almost two thirds had been homeless for more than two years and 16 people had been homeless for more than five years. "It is deeply wrong that in a society as affluent as ours that anyone should have to sleep rough, particularly at this time of year as the weather becomes increasingly cold," Carolyn Atkins from the Victorian Council of Social Service said. "This survey is helpful in highlighting the worst results of a society where people still cannot get affordable and secure housing that meet their needs. We know surveys such as this do not capture all those who are homeless," she said. She said emergency relief agencies around the state were reporting an increase in the number of people accessing their services who are homeless. "The recent state budget cut to homelessness support services are likely to exacerbate these problems," she said. For the first time since the count began, a pair of young people who gave their age as under 18 were detected sleeping rough in a Melbourne train station — it was their third night out in the cold. During the count volunteers visited parks and streets in the CBD, North and West Melbourne and Flagstaff and Fitzroy Gardens. Of the 101 people detected sleeping rough, 87 were male. More than 80 per cent of those counted were aged between 25 and 60. "People who sleep rough are those most in need of help. By collecting data on how many people sleep rough we get an idea of who the most vulnerable people are and can target our efforts towards them," Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said. In 2011 volunteers counted 105 people sleeping rough, in 2010 it was 101, 2009 - 75 and in 2008 112. This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/teens-sleeping-rough-on-affluent-streets-deeply-wrong-20120607-1zxow.html