This Homelessness Week, 1 to 7 August 2021, is a time to reflect on homelessness in our community and learn more about what it means. 

Homelessness can affect anyone, at any time, from any area. The line between having a home and not can change quickly, and the paths in and out of homelessness are also not straightforward.

Yarra Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri said:

“No one should be without a home. Having a safe, permanent place to live and build a life is a universal human right. It is essential to our health and wellbeing and enables us to socialise and participate in our community.

 “Yarra Council works actively to help people who are experiencing homelessness, including rough sleepers, families and young people in overcrowded accommodation, people living in rooming houses and those escaping family violence”. 

“Everyone has a right to be in public places and to be treated with dignity and respect. We must all act to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness in our community.”

Homelessness Week 2021 Launch

Hosted by the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas, Homelessness Australia is running an online event to mark the beginning of Homelessness Week. 

Dr. Angela Jackson, Lead Economist for Equity Economics, will lead a discussion on her report commissioned by the Everybody’s Home campaign. 

Join the Homelessness Week launch online - Monday 2 August, from 11am to 12:15pm. 

Supporting rough sleepers

While people sleeping rough only make up small proportion of our homeless population, around 7%, they are often experiencing a crisis and in urgent need of our assistance and compassion. We work in partnership with Launch Housing to help connect rough sleepers to essential services. 

You can download and read the How to Respond to Rough Sleeping and Squatting in Yarra Protocol. The protocol has advice on how best to respond to people who are homeless or sleeping rough.

We’ve also developed an online homelessness reporting tool to help the community report rough sleeping sites in Yarra. 

Please use this tool or call us on 9205 5555 if you notice a site where there are people sleeping rough. Our team will visit the site and help connect the homeless person to essential services.