Twenty Hunter organisations have made a committed pledge to act on rising homeless figures and work towards ending homelessness in the region.
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Councils, members of parliament and non-government organisations met at Newcastle City Hall on Friday to sign-off on their pledge to tackle and end the issue.
An initiative of the Big Ideas Homelessness Network, the pledge is designed to raise awareness, link organisations and begin the process of further action.
Compass Housing knowledge manager David Adamson said having the founding signatories commit to action will help stimulate further activity.
“This is the launch of something and we’ll be moving it forward with as many signatories as we possibly can,” he said.
“The more people who sign up to it, the greater strength it’s got.
“The wonderful thing about something like this is people start talking to each other. They start sharing solutions and you get those connections made. Suddenly an idea pops up and you’ve got something on the ground.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released homeless figures drawn from census data in March, which showed 1747 were deemed homeless in the hunter in 2016 – up from 1559 in 2011.
Nationally, there were 116,427 people classified as homeless.
Path2Change, the Newcastle early-intervention and homeless prevention program, were one of the groups to sign on.
Others included Newcastle, Maitland, Singleton and Cessnock councils, Hunter Water, Beyond Bank, Compass Housing Services and Samaritans.
Jenn O’Sullivan, Path 2 Change executive manager, said the various signatories represented a holistic approach.
“It’s very encouraging because I believe that homelessness demands a community response, rather than just left to services who are funded to deal with it,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
“So getting the whole community on board, and other organisations, and working collaboratively and not in silos.
“But working together to make sure people who are experiencing homelessness have wrapped around services and we can move them very quickly into more stable housing.”
The pledge initiative has been used effectively in cities overseas including in Canada, the USA, Wales and Scotland.
Every year, signatories will be asked to renew their pledge and report on what action they have taken to reduce homelessness.
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