Posted by spoonman Friday 11 April, 2008 04:20 PM
In a country as rich as Australia, having so many homeless young people is a national disgrace.
I received a massive response on the phones and email earlier this week when we spoke about the 36,000 homeless people under 25 forced to live on our streets every night of the year.
Of them, 22,000 are between 12 and 18 years old.
In a country as rich as ours, with an alleged social conscience and the much-lauded concept of looking after your 'mates' well entrenched in our psyches, this is nothing less than a national disgrace.
According to the most recent report from the National Youth Commission the main reason is family breakdown, a finding supported by your many calls and emails.
Most of the former homeless people I spoke to this week say that mum or dad lost it about something and just threw them out of the house.
Or they became the ammo in a divorce war and bailed. Or they were sexually or physically abused. Or mum and dad were affected by drug and/or alcohol addictions.
Many assume drugs are the major cause of youth homelessness, but in reality they are usually a symptom of the problem, not the cause.
The shrinking number of young people who do find a place in a shelter or refuge come into contact with drug and alcohol abuse, usually harder stuff than they might have used before. And the streets are awash with drugs.
So pretty clearly, while the Federal Government's pledge of $150 million to buy homes and build shelters is very welcome, it offers no solution to these thousands of kids sleeping on the street tonight, and the nights are getting colder.
On that note I received an email from a Melbourne guy called Tony Clark from Swags For Homeless - a charity he founded to supply homeless people with some portable shelter and warmth in the form of a 2kg backpack.
He gets no government funding and is struggling to make the Labor governments get the idea that their policies are long term, but the homeless live a day to day crisis.
He has had interest from other charities and various Liberal politicians, but once again, an important issue is being politicised.
The States and the new Federal Government reckon punters would see the government handing out Swags as THE solution, and it would reflect poorly on them politically.
What a crock - even the young people who sleep-out annually to help the homeless take a sleeping bag and pillow.
And Australians are smarter than that - we get it - it's not hard.
So can someone in the Labor movement reading this now who gives a toss - GET ON WITH IT - and spend a paltry few million to get Swags For Homeless, preferably by tomorrow night.
Then build the shelters. Then see what more help can be offered to families in crisis to stem the increasing flow of kids sleeping on the streets in the first place.
Over to you......
