Homeless

A few weeks ago, I got up early, before dawn and drove to Southbank to join the 'get fit' crowd with a walk along the river. Most of the crowd run, cycle or move to the orders being barked by their personal trainers. They all look so fashionable, so healthy. They look so good, they don't need to do this stuff?

I amble along thinking how lovely the morning is. Most mornings I can't help but see people who are homeless sleeping in the boat sheds at Kangaroo Point. One has a bicycle with him. I used to walk along the boardwalk next to the boat sheds. But as I don't want to wake this guy I now go along the path. What a bugger we must be. We have our lives, our homes, enough resources to even think about improving our health and now we noisely make our way into the private, but public places where people sleep.

On this particular morning, I parked my car next to the only other car in the bays. As I got out I looked over to find the driver, a woman sleeping in her front seat.

In Kathleen Noonan's column (Courier Mail, 25-26 Aug 07) she quite rightly tries to dispel the myths behind public perception of 'the homeless'. The truth is the transient bloke who drinks too much is not the dominant demographic in the population. 25,000 Queenslanders were homeless in the 2001 Census*, 16% or 3,869 were rough sleepers, 53% were staying temporarily with friends and relatives, 9% in government funded hostels and a further 22% living in boarding houses.

It is young people, women and families that are the growing homeless demographic. In Noonan's article, Dale Spender correctly identified the slim gap between having a home and no longer having a home:

"No work, no support, no money, can't meet he rent or mortgage, then homeless. It's not such a huge jump'.

No its not.

Today I have done some housework on this blog and have included a link to two blogs from women who were homeless, one in the US and the other in Britain. Excellent, but chilling reading if you dare.

Warm regards
Michelle
* 2006 Census figures due out any day now.