The City of Launceston council heard how steps are being taken to ease homelessness ... By Joe Colbrook July 30 2023 - 3:00pm
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Australia has grown 5.2% in the past five years with women and children, as well as Indigenous Australians, bearing the brunt of the housing crisis.
It has been more than one year since the City of Launceston council formalised its Homelessness Advisory Committee, with councillors noting progress is gradually being made.
The group consists of councillors from Launceston and neighbouring municipalities, council officers and stakeholders including Tasmania Police.
... Launceston is not alone in dealing with homelessness, but councillors say work is
being done in public and behind the scenes. Picture by Paul Scambler
Documents tabled at the July 27 council meeting provided insight into some of the committee's activities through to May 30.
These included seeking a new venue for the Green Bean Cafe's efforts to feed the city's homeless, however the committee minutes note this has been unsuccessful so far.
Committee chairman councillor Tim Walker told councillors at the July meeting that there had been successes like the initial run of physical information cards that list available support services. ... "The proof is always in the pudding with these things," Cr Walker said.
"It has been encouraging to see, for example, the reach out cards that were developed by this council which provide pocket-sized information and can be distributed through a variety of sources.
"One thousand of those were printed and they have actually been distributed so there's more of being printed as we speak."
Cr Walker said the physical cards were important as they led to "equity in communication", rather than taking access to digital communication for granted.
Councillor George Razay, who also sits on the committee, said although homelessness was growing service providers had reported to the committee they were doing what they could to increase their coverage.
Cr Razay also noted there had been a big shift in how the community referred to homelessness.
"I remember last year nobody talked about homelessness, they didn't want to say anything," Cr Razay said.
"Now I see people from the community give us suggestions on how we can help the homeless people."
Councillor Hugh McKenzie noted Launceston was not the only city dealing with homelessness, and although it had taken some "prodding" the council and its partners were working hard to make a "meaningful difference".
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