Category Archives: Homelessness

Queensland to allow granny flats to be rented as urgent fix for housing crisis

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Premier says many cheaper rentals will now hit the market, helping thousands of people across the state

A change to planning rules to allow Queenslanders to rent out their granny flats will increase affordable housing stocks, the state government says.

Restrictions on who can live in granny flats will be removed so secondary dwellings can be rented on the open market, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced on Friday.

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Bring back eviction ban or face ‘catastrophic’ homelessness crisis, ministers told

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Sir Bob Kerslake calls on government to protect at-risk tenants as it did during pandemic

The former head of the civil service has warned of a looming “catastrophic” homelessness crisis caused by the cost of living unless the government reintroduces the eviction ban that protected tenants during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sir Bob Kerslake, who chairs the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, said a failure to act “could see this become a homelessness as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic; with all the good achieved in reducing street homelessness since the pandemic lost, and any hope of the government meeting its manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024 gone”.

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Los Angeles county is home to more than 69,000 unhoused people, count finds

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Number marks 4% increase since last count, in January 2020, but is believed to be an undercount

Los Angeles has experienced a 4% increase in its homeless population during the pandemic, with 69,144 unhoused people counted across the county this year, according to government data released on Thursday.

The Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa), which conducted the count in February 2022 after skipping a year during the pandemic, said the growth of the unhoused population had slowed in the last two years, in part due to pandemic programs and funding. The previous count, conducted in January 2020, showed a 13% jump from 2019.

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Albanese government urged to freeze rent rises for two years to avoid ‘national tragedy’

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Greens plea comes as research finds skyrocketing regional rents are contributing to unfilled job vacancies

The Greens are urging the Albanese government to impose a nationwide rent freeze for two years, saying the issue of rental affordability should be elevated to national cabinet ahead of next week’s jobs and skills summit.

New research from the Everybody’s Home advocacy group has found increased rents in regional areas are contributing to unfilled job vacancies, with some areas recording rental rises of more than 40% in the past two years.

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Woman who died sleeping rough in Adelaide parklands not found for three weeks

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Services report 279 ‘actively homeless’ people in SA as ministers meet to address national housing crisis

The body of a woman who died while sleeping rough in the Adelaide parklands was not found for three weeks.

The 48-year-old woman, discovered by a man who knew her, was found in a tent in the eastern end of the parklands along South Terrace at 2pm on 22 May.

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‘This was properly amazing work’: the artist’s life’s work found in a skip

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George Westren’s op-art drawings went viral on social media after a neighbour saved them from the tip – now they might get an exhibition of their own

For a short time last week, the entire works of artist George Westren were sat in a skip, heading for the rubbish dump. A few hours later, however, and they were going viral on social media, with people across the world marvelling at his technique and enquiring as to how they might buy some of the late artist’s work.

None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for the actions of “nosy neighbour” Alan Warburton. Warburton had been left saddened during lockdown by the news that Westren, his shy upstairs neighbour of six years, had died alone in his flat. Last week, after hearing removal men emptying out the place, he was horrified to see hundreds of Westren’s drawings and paintings bagged up and headed for the tip.

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‘Situation is urgent’: treat housing crisis like a natural disaster, Queensland government told

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Advocates call for a leaders’ meeting to coordinate support for people displaced by floods, pandemic and soaring house prices

The Queensland government should respond to the deepening housing crisis as it would a natural disaster and invest billions in new housing stock, advocates say.

It should also convene leaders from the sector to form that response and guarantee the 2032 Brisbane Olympics do not fuel homelessness and housing stress.

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Homes for Ukraine: refugees being left homeless, UK community groups warn

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Fears system could crash entirely amid growing reports of people being made to leave by sponsors

Growing numbers of refugees are being made homeless, and in many cases destitute, after relationship breakdowns with their Homes for Ukraine hosts in the UK, community organisations have said.

Some predict the system could crash entirely after reports of Ukrainian refugees being asked to leave the homes of their sponsors with only one day’s notice, leaving them with no option but to be referred to local authorities as homeless or, if they can afford to, attempt to seek last-minute rented accommodation.

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Ukraine refugees staying with UK hosts not cleared by criminal record checks

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Concerns grow for safety of those heading to Britain as government scrambles to fix flaws in housing scheme

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest developments

Ukrainians fleeing the war are being housed with UK hosts who have not had a criminal record check, in the latest concern to blight the government’s response to the refugee crisis.

Under increasing pressure to iron out flaws in its schemes, government sources told the Observer they were creating a “rematching” service to house Ukrainians with people willing to help.

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‘I was lost’: Kyiose faced homelessness after arriving in Australia from Myanmar – and he’s not alone

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Half of all respondents say they had experienced homelessness exacerbated by language issues and other systemic barriers

Kyiose Han did not know where to go when his brother kicked him out of home two years ago. Aged 17 at the time, Han, an orphan, had only recently arrived in Australia from Myanmar.

He had no job, no money and knew very little English.

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‘We are treating this as a murder’: three killed in Sydney boarding house fire

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Police hold fears for a fourth person still missing after an explosion in Newtown that officers believe was deliberate

A murder investigation is under way following the deaths of three people in a “cramped, crowded” and “dilapidated” boarding house fire in Sydney’s inner west.

Emergency services were called to the fire at the corner of Probert and Albemarle streets in Newtown about 1am on Tuesday after reports of a loud explosion. Three people have been confirmed dead, and police hold fears for a fourth person who is still missing.

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‘We woke to bulldozers’: Nigeria slum clearance leaves thousands homeless

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More that 15,00 homes destroyed in Port Harcourt in government plan to ‘sanitise the waterfronts by removing shanties’

The bulldozers rolled into Urualla, Port Harcourt, early on 30 January. By the end of the day, hundreds of people were homeless, their belongings scattered and lost, as government clearances of waterfront slums in the southern Nigerian city got under way.

Over six days, the homes of more than 15,000 families in eight slum communities in the Diobu area of the city were destroyed. Another three neighbourhoods are earmarked to be cleared.

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New Zealand’s homeless have been moved off the streets, but the crisis endures

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At the start of the pandemic, New Zealand made headlines for appearing to eliminate homelessness, but the story is more complicated

Franki began living on Auckland’s streets at age 15, shortly after his father died in 2018. He hunted for secret spots to sleep – the backs of buildings and cemeteries. There were times when he was frightened; times when the older street community took him under their wings.

He slept rough through New Zealand’s first pandemic lockdown, wandering the quiet roads, struggling to find food. There were few housing options for a teenager – rentals would not accept him, nor many motels. In mid-2020, worried for his health, he walked through the doors of Lifewise, an organisation that supports people into accommodation.

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‘To get out is an absolute struggle’: landmark study sheds light on Australians sleeping rough

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Homelessness report reveals health and discrimination issues as authors call for new national strategy

Leigh Jorey was pretty successful in his mid-30s. A panel beater by trade, he’d completed an apprenticeship, owned his own tow truck company, and worked at it hard. His success didn’t stop him becoming homeless. In fact, it may have contributed to the problem.

Under pressure, Jorey began to turn to less healthy ways of coping, which led him into a downward spiral.

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India homeless shiver through New Delhi cold snap as scores die from exposure

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City records coldest January day in nearly a decade while temperatures across month plummet 2-6C below normal

India’s capital, New Delhi, is shivering through an unusually harsh bout of winter cold, blamed for killing scores of homeless people and leaving other hard-up residents struggling to keep warm.

The sprawling city’s 20 million inhabitants are accustomed to year-round weather extremes, from blistering summer heat to torrential downpours and thick, toxic smog at the end of autumn.

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‘Trying to disappear the poor’: California clears homeless camp near Super Bowl

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Advocates and displaced residents condemn move amid fears for safety: ‘They are just trying to survive’

Officials in Los Angeles have cleared a homeless encampment near SoFi stadium, where the Super Bowl will take place in three weeks, drawing backlash from human rights groups and the unhoused residents who have been displaced.

On Monday and Tuesday, the state transit agency Caltrans shut down the tent community, which visitors would probably have passed on their way to the big game, calling it a “safety issue”.

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‘I have a lot of things to say’: one girl’s life growing up homeless in New York

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For nine years, New York Times journalist Andrea Elliott followed the fortunes of one family living in poverty. In this extract from her new book, Invisible Child, we meet Dasani Coates in 2012, aged 11 and living in a shelter

• Read an interview with Andrea Elliott here

She wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled under coats and wool blankets, their chests rising and falling in the dark. They have yet to stir. Their sister is always first. She looks around the room, seeing only silhouettes – the faint trace of a chin or brow, lit from the street below. Mice scurry across the floor. Roaches crawl to the ceiling. A little sink drips and drips, sprouting mould from a rusted pipe.

A few feet away is the yellow mop bucket they use as a toilet, and the mattress where the mother and father sleep, clutched. Radiating out from them in all directions are the eight children they share: two boys and five girls whose beds zigzag around the baby, her crib warmed by a hairdryer perched on a milk crate.

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Bill Bernstein’s best photograph: joy and humanity in a homeless centre

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‘It was clear that these two had each other in their lives, and that was pretty much it’

In the 1970s I lived in SoHo in New York, which is not far from the Bowery, but the two districts were like separate universes. SoHo was full of artists and creative types but the Bowery was known as the place where you ended up when you were at the bottom of the barrel. There were a lot of flophouses and a lot of alcoholism and drug use. It was the darkest place in New York City for a long time.

The Bowery Mission is a Christian rescue centre for homeless people. Only men are allowed to stay overnight but it feeds anybody. I used to go there around Thanksgiving and Christmas time to help serve dinner. The face-to-face contact and interactions I had with people meant that I always felt a real connection with them, and it also made me grateful for what I had in my own life.

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Preaching truth to power: the São Paulo priest standing up to Bolsonaro

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Júlio Lancellotti is an outspoken champion of homeless people – a cause that makes him unpopular with Brazil’s authorities

In 2017, most Brazilians were still unfamiliar with the name Jair Bolsonaro. But for Júlio Lancellotti, there was already cause for concern in the reactionary rhetoric of the man who would be elected president two years later under the slogan: “Brazil above everything, God above everyone.”

“I am astonished that a homophobic person like Bolsonaro appears on the presidential ballot,” said the priest during mass on 7 March of that year at St Michael the Archangel parish in São Paulo’s East Zone. The sermon, in which he also preached against rape culture and sexism, was typical of the man who has devoted his life to fighting injustice, often finding himself targeted by conservative politicians as a result.

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Luxury homes, short lets and shacks: inside Lisbon’s housing crisis

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Wealthy overseas buyers lured by ‘golden visas’ helped create a city where workers struggle to find homes

Manuela Lopes dates her misfortune from the moment her Lisbon neighbourhood began attracting comparisons with Brooklyn. It was the mid 2010s: former warehouses in the old working-class parish of Marvila were giving way to co-working spaces, art galleries, artisan breweries, creative hubs and tech startups. In 2018, average property prices in the neighbourhood were up 79.8% on the previous year.

A short walk from Lopes’ home, a 12-building luxury residential project designed by the world-famous architect Renzo Piano is now rising from Marvila’s old industrial waterfront. Prices for apartments, some with balconies overlooking the Tagus, range from €500,000 to €925,000 (£425,000 to £786,000) and many have been sold off-plan. Promotional material for Prata Riverside Village promises a “new way of living Lisbon” for “young families, students, digital nomads and retired people” in a district “distinguished by its true neighbourhood atmosphere; quiet but full of life” .

Manuela Lopes (above and below right) was born in the Santos Lima building (right) in the Marvila neighbourhood of Lisbon. She has lived with the threat of eviction since 2017. Photographs: Goncalo Fonseca/The Guardian

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