Homelessness Prevention Week runs from 3 to 9 August.
It is estimated that on any given night, more than 100,000 people are without a stable home in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Statistics distinguishes between ‘home’lessness and ‘roof’lessness. A person is considered homeless if they are in temporary or substandard accommodation (such as a boarding house or caravan/tent), are couch surfing, living in their car or sleeping rough.
In Victoria, approximately 30,000 people are defined as homeless. Janene Evans is the manager of Crisis and Homelessness Services for Wesley Mission Victoria. She said rough sleepers make up less than 5 per cent of the homeless population and the majority of people Wesley supports are the ‘hidden homeless’.
Wesley is encouraging people who want to support their work to donate a clean towel during Homelessness Prevention Week.
“When people think of homelessness, they immediately think of needs like shelter, warmth and food, but few think about bathroom needs,” Janene said.
“Our hot showers provide people with great relief and they like to take the provided towels with them. We want to be able to give everybody a towel and we need a lot of towels to make that possible.”
Towels can be donated at a number of collection points throughout the state. To find out more go to: http://bit.ly/1DlLUzL
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