Homelessness in Australia is getting worse. It’s no longer just city centres where people are forced to sleep rough, live in their cars or rely on temporary shelter. The most recent census shows outer suburbs and regional areas are feeling housing pressures like never before.
More often than not, communities in these areas just don’t know what to do. Increasingly, residents are asking small, stretched local councils to go beyond their traditional responsibilities of rates, roads and rubbish and do more to tackle homelessness.
Yet local government lacks the mandate or the money to do so. Often, the only tool at local councils’ disposal is enforcement of local laws on behaviour in public places.
