Thanks to Elizabeth for this article following her and Jill's attendance at the BCO presentation
Homelessness Panel at Boroondara Community Outreach
What does home mean to you? To me it means a place of warmth and security where I can nurture and enjoy my family and friends, where we all can relax but also pursue our goals. Home is more than having a roof over your head.
Jill and I had an eye-opening experience last night when we attended the Homelessness Panel event at BCO in Highbury Grove, Kew. In that warm, safe space many interested people, as well as several who already volunteer at BCO, gathered to listen to the story of real people who have experienced homeless and the factors involved.
Jill and I had an eye-opening experience last night when we attended the Homelessness Panel event at BCO in Highbury Grove, Kew. In that warm, safe space many interested people, as well as several who already volunteer at BCO, gathered to listen to the story of real people who have experienced homeless and the factors involved.
Natalie Dixon-Monu, who many of you met at the recent Christmas in July event, started off by giving us some definitions and statistics from the last Census. When we think of homeless people, we think of those who we occasionally see sleeping rough-yet they only represent 6% of homeless people. Often these people
have major mental health issues which makes living in hostels, rooming houses or regular accommodation very difficult for them.
Natalie then introduced Ixia, who travelled to Australia from Iran with her fiancé. She travelled on a tourist visa. When their daughter was one she had to leave the family home to escape domestic violence. Her experience with case workers and having to tell and retell her traumatic story as the workers were replaced frequently, and her
struggle to understand the foreign language and customs was also traumatic. Being moved from hotel to hotel nearly every fortnight meant she never could learn about a place, and a single hotel room with no means of cooking or a secure yard is not a home, either for her but most especially for her toddler daughter. Added to these problems, despite having married an Australian citizen and having a child (who is Australian) she is ineligible for any government funding and has not been able to apply for permanent residency because her husband was ineligible to sponsor her due to his earlier (unknown to her) domestic violence offences against his first wife!
For an almost blissful three weeks they were housed in a women’s refuge and there she was given the number for BCO. When they were moved again, as her husband found their location, and she was placed at a hotel in Kew, she was urged to call them. “But I don’t need a food voucher, I need a job”, she said. Fortunately for her, she called and when it was explained how she could walk there from her hotel, she made the trip-and found a haven! Ixia now has a home and her daughter is becoming a happy, healthy little girl, but their journey and struggle is not over. Ixia’s story is similar to those of many women trying to escape domestic violence, many of whom also suffer from lack of family support and not being English speakers.
Another, growing group of homeless people are single women over 55.
Clearly there is much work to do in this space and we need to consider how we at Rotary can help.
