This week is Freehills Foundation Week, and the week’s aim is to raise awareness about homelessness on both a local and global level. In Australia, around 105,000 people are homeless on any given night.1
The magnitude of homelessness is unexpected. ‘People expect a good life and they are genuinely concerned when they hear about people not getting a fair go,’ said Annette Bain, Executive Director, Freehills Foundation. ‘Because of this, I know this year’s Foundation Week will strike a chord with people. Homelessness is not simply a lack of stable and affordable housing. It is usually the result of many layers of inequity stemming from things like abuse, neglect, disability, family violence and poverty.’
The different forms of homelessness are not widely recognised. ‘Homelessness comes in various shapes and sizes,’ said Bain. ‘There is primary homelessness such as rough sleepers, who are highly visible. And then there is the homelessness that is not so easy to identify. It could be a woman who flees domestic violence with her children living with relatives, or others who are constantly forced to change address.’
Why focus on homelessness?
‘Freehills has a long history with homelessness, especially through The Shopfront,’ said Bain. In February 1993, The Shopfront Youth Legal Centre was established in association with Mission Australia, later joined by The Salvation Army. The Shopfront is a free legal service for homeless and disadvantaged young people. The centre was created in response to the Burdekin Report—the report of a national inquiry into youth homelessness by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. ‘Combating homelessness is as relevant today because the number of homeless teenagers has doubled in the last 20 years,’ said Bain. In December last year, the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP and Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek MP, released the Australian Government's White Paper on Homelessness: The Road Home, which highlights that the problem is not abating.
Freehills provides opportunities for solicitors to go on secondment to other pro bono legal clinics. These include QPILCH’s Homeless Persons’ Legal Service at Mission Australia’s Café One in Brisbane and the Mental Health Legal Centre’s Night Service in Melbourne. Freehills is in the process of establishing a homeless people’s clinic at the St Kilda Crisis Centre. In Perth, Freehills works with Sussex Street Community Legal Service. ‘We also work closely with our signature partners The Brotherhood of St Laurence, Mission Australia and The Salvation Army to deliver best possible practice to people who are homeless,’ said Bain.
Raising the profile of our pro bono and community practice
‘Freehills Foundation Week is an opportunity to raise the profile of the foundation’s pro bono and community work and its commitment to access to justice,’ continued Bain. ‘Every year Freehills assists more than 1000 pro bono clients through our pro bono legal work. It is an opportunity to remind people how to become involved through doing pro bono legal work, including secondments and volunteering in the community. All staff are eligible to take one Volunteering Day each year.’
Combat homelessness locally and globally
‘During Freehills Foundation Week we are concentrating on how we can fight homelessness: by promoting a deeper understanding of it and by offering some practical responses so that each of us can help homeless people on a local and global level,’ said Bain.
Freehills Foundation has joined forces with UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency. The core mandate of UNHCR is to protect 32.9 million uprooted or stateless people. The foundation is calling on donations which will provide at least a minimum of shelter, food, water and medical care in the immediate aftermath of an refugee exodus. ‘Homelessness is on the rise due to wars and persecution, and increasingly climate change and even the economic downturn,’ said Bain.
‘We are capable of changing homelessness,’ said Bain. ‘It is not a question of if we can change it, but when we can change it. We can send people to the moon, so why can’t we find shelter?
Endnotes
1. Australian Government’s White Paper on Homelessness: The Road Home
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