Important lessons were learnt about homelessness and human rights at the Human Rights and Homeless Nights forum in Sydney on Monday 2 August 2010.

Launched by the Hon. Linda Burney, NSW Minister for Community Services, the forum was co-hosted by Homelessness NSW and the Homeless Persons’ Legal Service* as part of the National Homeless Persons’ Week, 2-8 August.

For this year’s theme, the National Homeless Persons’ Week asked the question: ‘will you be homeless in 2020’.

The answer from participants in the Human Rights and Homeless Nights forum was that until we recognise the human rights of homeless people, and until homeless people are participating effectively in government and service decision-making, our effort to eliminate homelessness will fail.

To illustrate the point, consumer representatives, Kevin, Veronica and AJ shared their experiences of dealing with services and law enforcement agencies such as the police and transit officers.

‘There are procedures in place about how to deal with homeless people appropriately, but a lot of the officers don’t know about these procedures or don’t follow them’, said AJ.

‘There aren’t enough 24-hours services that homeless people can go to. Over-the-top OH&S requirements have made it really hard for services to provide the support that homeless people really need’, said Kevin.

Veronica, the youth consumer representative also explained that she was evicted from a religion-based youth accommodation because she couldn’t comply with its inflexible rules.

‘I respected their rules, but I’m not a Catholic and I was over 18, their rules were simply not fair’, she said. 

There was concern at the forum that the election campaigns from both sides of politics had neglected to address homelessness.

‘It would be shameful to see all the good work that has been done by the Rudd government undone after the election,’ said Ms Robin Banks, Anti-Discrimination Commissioner in Tasmania, in her presentation on why homelessness is a breach of universal human rights.

Ms Janet Meagher, the Secretary of the World Federation for Mental Health and a prominent Mental Health Consumer activist, summarised the sentiment at the forum: ‘… real change can come about if government and services seriously support the empowerment of people who are homeless to become their own advocate. If consumers are the ones that are driving government policies and services, perhaps in five years time at the National Homeless Persons’ Week, we will be celebrating our success on redressing homelessness, instead of lamenting our failures’. 

For more photos of this event please go to HPLS facebook page.

* The Homeless Persons’ Legal Service (HPLS) is a joint initiative of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH) NSW. PIAC receives funding from the NSW Attorney General, the Hon John Hatzistergos MLC, through the NSW Public Purpose Fund to operate the Service.