Being Aboriginal with a disability a ‘double whammy’, royal commission told

Narelle Reynolds, who has two disabled sons, says her family has been pushed into homelessness.

A Wiradjuri woman who is the full-time carer for two adult sons with intellectual disabilities has told the royal commission that the “double whammy” of being Aboriginal with a disability has pushed her family into homelessness.

Narelle Reynolds’ sons, Justin, 38, and Luke, 33, have Fragile X syndrome – a genetic condition that causes intellectual disabilities. Luke also has epilepsy and has been treated for thyroid cancer. In childhood, they were misdiagnosed as having autism.

In 2015, Luke’s health began to deteriorate. In 2017 he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had surgery and chemotherapy. In order to access better medical and more culturally appropriate services, Reynolds moved the family from Dubbo to Coffs Harbour but has struggled to find affordable housing.

Over 3 million Australians locked into poverty

Fewer entry-level jobs, rising housing costs, and inadequate welfare rates are just some of the contributing factors to more than one in eight adults living in poverty, with sector leaders banding together to call for immediate action.

The latest Australian Council for Social Services and UNSW Sydney poverty report revealed more than 3 million Australians are living below the poverty line, including 774,000 children.

The child poverty rate was found to be consistently higher than overall poverty, ranging from 18 per cent to 16 per cent over the past decade. The rate now sits at 17.7 per cent – more than one in six children.

The report also found that poverty has not only remained consistently high but the depth is getting worse, with households in poverty on average living 42 per cent below the poverty line, up from 35 per cent in 2007.

‘They allowed the perfect storm’: UN expert damns New Zealand’s housing crisis

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Leilani Farha said New Zealand’s housing crisis is tragic Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Image

When Leilani Farha touches down in a new city, the first thing the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing does is look up.

In Melbourne, Toronto, London and Dublin, the skies above are filled with cranes, Farha says, soaring across the skyline , to construct new homes for their booming populations.

Last week Farha arrived in Wellington on a fact-finding mission, lured by the headlines of a housing crisis, chronic homelessness, and motels bulging with desperate families for months at a time – all occurring with a new progressive government at the helm.

“I didn’t see cranes in the sky, which is suggestive of not a lot of development – that struck me right away,” says Farha, a plain-talking Canadian. “They allowed the perfect storm, and that’s successive governments. It’s really a bit tragic. It’s a human rights crisis.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Leilani Farha said New Zealand’s housing crisis is tragic Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Image

‘War on the poor’: Las Vegas’s homelessness crackdown takes effect

Rick Russel, 56, has lived in Las Vegas’s alleys and lots for 11 years. Photograph: Daniel Hernandez

Outside a Taco Bell in south-east Las Vegas, Skateboard Mike crossed an empty parking lot and pointed at the tent encampment that had built up on the ledges of a storm drain.

Skateboard Mike, whose real name is Michael Brinkman, lives nearby, spending his nights in a hole he dug in a dirt lot. The space is filled with couch cushions, and Brinkman, 42, usually tops the hole with cardboard and tumbleweed to avoid being exposed.

“It’s not that we’re here. It’s that they see us,” Brinkman said.

Las Vegas recently began cracking down on people living outdoors. In November, the city council approved a law that made sitting, resting or “lodging” on sidewalks a misdemeanor punishable with up to six months in jail or fines of up to $1,000 in most neighborhoods.

“I don’t blame them,” Brinkman said of community support for the ordinance. “That’s where a majority of the homeless people stay, in the wash or the tunnels. As you can see, it becomes an eyesore. Trash is the biggest problem.”

Government inquiry launches to find answers to homelessness

A federal parliamentary inquiry seeking to understand how people become homeless and how to prevent it has launched, as the number of people experiencing homelessness in Australia reaches record levels.

Launched on Thursday, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry aims to find better ways to support people at risk of and experiencing homelessness.

First-home buyers flex their muscles as investors lose their oomph

The housing market is being driven by owner-occupiers and investors are largely absent. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

House prices remain a major issue of the economy as once again we see prices in Sydney and Melbourne go up after significant falls. For now the market is being driven by owner-occupiers, and investors remain largely absent. That is good news for first-home buyers who are make up a greater share of buyers than at any time since the GFC. It also gives the Reserve Bank scope to cut rates again.

Condemned to Poverty: The Reality of Homelessness, Precarious Housing, and Cyclical Poverty in A Small Town

My name is Leigh Bursey. I am a 32-year old municipal councillor in the beautiful city of Brockville, Ontario, Canada. Currently in my third term of governance, I have had the privilege of representing this incredible city for the last ten years of my life.

Some look at me and see a spunky punk rocker, covered in tattoos, who probably uses too many expletives to make a point. In fact, one thing that has been consistent for me the last number of years as a public figure is that I am bombastic, colourful, and generally unapologetic. This outgoing exterior does not mean that I am not aware of the world around me or the challenges many face. To ignore these challenges would be to ignore everything that inspires me to battle through my own depression, my family’s poverty cycles, and my own shortcomings as an adult still finding his place.

There was a time in my adolescence where my mother and I pitched a tent in a provincial campsite, fleeing a domestic situation that stripped us of our belongings, our finances, and our dignity. Hope was all we had. That and a killer playlist of songs that would become the soundtrack to our misfortunes, as well as our personal triumphs. Identifying as homeless was never something I was comfortable with until I came to better understand what that term meant. You see, like many, I often pictured homelessness as a traditional stereotype that fostered a large urban narrative.

The purpose of this blog is to do my best to articulate that homelessness and precarious housing is not confined to large urban centres. In fact, not only does it exist in my small city, but it exists just a few hundred feet from my own front door.

Construction starts on inner-city social housing high-rise project

A social housing project delivering 32 apartments in a nine-storey development at Woolloongabba is underway.

Construction starts next week on the high-rise development, which will offer studio and one and two-bedroom units.

The State Government provided the property at 126 Cornwall St and the Department of Housing and Public Works has entered into a capital funding agreement with not-for-profit Brisbane Housing Company (BHC) and will contribute $5.5 million in capital grant funding for the project.

Welcome to the world of renters by choice — the tenants turning their back on home ownership

The private rental sector has expanded at more than twice the rate of the increase in Australian households in the last two decades.

This increasingly diverse form of tenure now houses about one in four of us.

Australia’s lightly regulated private rental sector means the insecurity of tenants is a key factor in why most Australians aspire to own their home.

However, despite this insecurity, our research suggests an increase in people choosing to rent for a long time — 10 years or more — accounts for a small part of the growth in private renters.

Much of this growth is attributable to middle and high-income tenants. Especially in Melbourne and Sydney, high housing prices mean saving for a deposit takes much longer than in the 1990s.

In the meantime these households are renting for a long time.

‘Having to ask for somewhere to live, it’s difficult indeed’: Single, female, homeless. Australia’s shameful crisis

Older women are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in Australia today. And for many, it’s an unexpected life shock that tipped them into destitution.