Fears Grow for Queensland’s Homeless
14 January 2011 at 4:59 pm
As fears grow that some flood victims may never be found, homelessness support organisation, StreetSmart is calling for donations to help homeless people in flood effected areas of Queensland.
Streetsmart says many of the small grassroots agencies it works to assist have been effected along with their clients.
Streetsmart says being homeless during a natural disaster such as the Queensland floods, with few support networks, is traumatic.
According to the 2006 census, there are around 26,000 homeless people living in Queensland, the second highest rate of homelessness per capita in Australia.
Streetsmart says many people will have lost accommodation in older suburbs where boarding houses, refuges, community centres and older poorly maintained rental houses are located. Rough sleepers will have lost some of the few options they have and the the services, people and friends they rely on will have all been effected.
Streetsmart is calling for donations during January – March, with a commitment that 100% of allocated funds will be used to support people experiencing homelessness in Queensland.
Streetsmart says it will work with its Queensland partners to find effective projects to support, with a focus on helping people that are homeless, and the grassroots projects that support them, to get back on their feet.
