The roundtable representatives from Night Light, Rosies, M.A.D, Lighthouse care, Soul Centre, the police, State Government and the Logan City Council discussed issues such as homelessness, social inclusion and cost of living pressures on families.
These issues included:
– The impact of the breakdown of the family unit on social services
– Mortgage stress and housing affordability impacting homelessness
– A need to address the way statistics are calculated for homelessness
– Refuge shelters for the homeless should be paired with a training centre to help give people the basics they need to get out of the homeless cycle
– The processing of people waiting for homes through the housing department needs to be streamlined and a tracking mechanism needs to be put in place to eliminate charity shopping/abuse.
– The National Rental Affordably Scheme(NRAS) needs to be assessed as it is not helping the situation
– Government funding for community organisations should be available for all reputable organisations
– Red tape and regulation is making it hard for volunteer organisations to get on with the job as they spend valuable resources on compliance instead of on people in the community that genuinely need their help
– Members of the community need to make people who move here feel welcome – reach out to their neighbours
– Immigrants need to be included into the community, we need to break down the barriers and give them an opportunity to integrate themselves into our community though ensuring they have the basic skills needed to participate with others.
– We need to ensure that everyone has access to education and the support they need to be able to read and write
– People are disengaged because they are missing out on the basics like education and having a job.
A great local example of community support
This is one example of how the community as a whole can work at finding solutions to problems through empowering people to be able to end the cycle of poverty.
Where to from here
Bert has already spoken to Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement, Theresa Gambaro MP to arrange a community forum in the next couple of months.