Homeless Persons' Week

Homeless Persons' Week (HPW) is an annual event publicizing the plight of homeless people in Australia. The event is held in the first full week of August each year, and is coordinated by Homelessness Australia, the peak body organisation for the Australian homelessness sector.^[1] Government and NGOs aim to change the public understanding of homelessness as being a problem beyond street sleepers. Primary homelessness, or people sleeping rough, is not the only form of homelessness in Australia and is not representative of the true state and scale of the homeless population. Of the 105,000 people in Australia who were estimated to be homeless at the last census^[which?], about 16,000 (15%) were sleeping rough on the streets. The others are those living in other unsuitable housing or in homeless shelters.^[2]

Homelessness Week came about from various churches and missions running winter vigils to remember people who had died on the streets. These vigils were normally held in August as it is the coldest time of the year in Australia, when most people were likely to be overcome by the elements. In 2007, Homelessness Australia began coordinating the event as a national awareness week.^[1]

In 2013, a bikers club in Western Sydney organised an HPW event which included a ride to distribute blankets for street sleepers.^[3]

See also

• Homelessness in Australia
• Youth Homelessness Matters Day
• Homelessness Action Week (Canada)

References

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Homelessness in Australia

Service providers

• Anglicare
• Barnardo's
• Caretakers Cottage
• Coast Shelter
• Detour House
• FareShare (Australia)
• HomeGround Services
• Jewish House
• Launch Housing
• Mission Australia
• Najidah
• Orange Sky Laundry
• Salvos
• Samaritans Foundation
• Southern Youth and Family Services
• Taldumande Youth Services
• Toora Women
• UnitingCare Australia
• Vinnies
• Wayside Chapel
• Wesley Mission
• Wintringham Specialist Aged Care
• Youth Off The Streets
• Youthcare Hervey Bay

Peak body organisations

Homelessness	Council to Homeless Persons Homelessness Australia Homelessness NSW Homelessness SA NT Shelter Queensland Shelter Shelter Tasmania Shelter WA

Youth homelessness	National Youth Coalition for Housing Queensland Youth Housing Coalition Yfoundations

Events

• Homeless Persons' Week
• Youth Homelessness Matters Day
• Youth Refuge Week

Government programs

• Supported Accommodation Assistance Program

Misc.

• The Choir of Hard Knocks
• The Big Issue (Australia)
• The Oasis (2008 film)

Category

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