Mission Australia welcomed Sarah Ferguson's report on Monday night - 'Last Chance Motel - which aimed to present the reality of homelessness for families stuck in a cycle of temporary housing.As expected, the families featured all have their own stories to tell - when it comes to homelessness there is no stereotype: it is a situation arising from system failure rather than human failure.
As one father mentioned: "I've always had this picture in my head of a homeless person... they've got torn dirty clothes, they're not shaven, they're sort of sitting out on the corner looking for a handout… I'm not in that category but I don't have a home for my family and it's really embarrassing."
Homelessness is a symptom that arises from the combination of a low-income, a tight rental market favouring prejudice and a public housing system that has been systematically scaled back over the past decade.
As one mother mentioned in the program, how is she supposed to perform her role as mother while they have their family packed into a single hotel room and living out of boxes? Long-term 'temporary' accommodation is hardly the solution.
While rental properties are pricing low-income earners out of the market, there needs to be adequate public housing to meet the demand - but taxpayer funded 'temporary' accommodation should only ever be just that...temporary.
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