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Thursday, 5 August, 2021
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Covid rule-breaker avoids jail
Culture on show at the library By Danielle Kutchel The City of Casey gave residents a peek behind the scenes of its cultural exchange programs with an exhibition as part of its Winter Arts Festival. A number of gifts given to the council by other cities around the world were put on display at Bunjil Place Library for several weeks during the festival. For more, turn to page 13
Felicity from Bunjil Place Library with the exhibition. 245788 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
Housing crisis By Danielle Kutchel Each day in the City of Casey, more than 1000 people go without a safe place to call home. That’s an estimate, because the data is pulled from the 2016 Census which counted 1285 homeless people in Casey. It’s also unreliable because, according to the City of Casey, it doesn’t align with the experience of service providers in the area – which means the real number of people experiencing homelessness in Casey is likely to be far higher. “People experiencing homelessness” is a
broad term that encompasses a range of experiences: from people living on the street, to those staying on a friend’s couch. And they can be people from all walks of life too – young and old, people leaving prison, migrants and, increasingly, women. It’s important to know that homelessness doesn’t discriminate, according to Wayss chief executive officer Liz Thomas. “The people Wayss supports are representative of almost every cohort within our diverse communities,” she said.
But women and children fleeing family violence are a definite concern, she said. “We know that family violence is the biggest cause of homelessness for women and children. “Particularly troubling is the fact that we are seeing women with young children who have escaped family violence spending too long in emergency accommodation such as motels or rooming houses due to shortages in housing.” The south east region has seen a sharp in-
crease in recent years of people presenting to homelessness services, and it’s particularly concentrated in Casey. In fact, Casey experienced the highest increase of all the south east council areas (which also includes Dandenong, Monash and Cardinia) in clients accessing specialist homelessness services between 2017 and 2019. But the pandemic has highlighted just how vulnerable – and how close to the edge – so many of us are. Continued page 4
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