July 29, 2021
Homelessness Week 2021
August 1-7 marks Homelessness Week 2021
The week raises awareness of the homelessness crisis in Australia and the actions needed to end homelessness.
The theme this year is ‘Everybody Needs a Home’. Housing is more than just shelter. An adequate home is foundational to living a healthy life with safety, security, and a sense of wellbeing. This year’s Homelessness Week theme reflects the urgent need for social and affordable housing across the country, and aims to highlight the structural changes required to fix Australia’s housing system and end homelessness.
This theme aligns with our commitment to providing stable and secure homes for at-risk young people through our Studio Program. At Kids Under Cover we know prevention is the cure in fighting homelessness. Without a stable place to call home, it can be almost impossible for at-risk young people to remain engaged in school, maintain relationships stay connected to their community.
In Australia there are 116,000 people without a home every night – 27, 680 are young people aged between 12 and 24. This number has only been growing in recent years due to skyrocketing rents and a shortage of social housing. The COVID-19 crisis has increased pressure on millions of Australians and is pushing even more people into rent stress and homelessness.
A lack of affordable and secure housing is the number one reason for people seeking homelessness support in Australia — for women and children, family and domestic violence is the number one reason.
This Homelessness Week we encourage you to support the Everybody’s Home campaign to invest urgently in social housing to provide a safety net for women fleeing domestic violence.