The Council’s biannual homelessness count has revealed an increase of 22 percent
Just one year on from the Prime Minister’s pledge to halve homelessness by 2020, City of Sydney Council has found a 22 percent increase in those sleeping rough.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said Council was committed to combating the rise of homelessness. “Our Street Counts show a concerning, consistent rise in the number of people counted sleeping in our parks, streets, trains, train stations and in overnight temporary shelters since we started conducting these counts in August 2008,” Cr Moore said.
“In June we will reach the one year anniversary of the NSW Government’s Homelessness Action Plan which targets a 25% reduction in rough sleepers by 2013. We hope these targets will be reflected in declining numbers of people recorded during successive Street Counts into the future.”
Last Tuesday morning 416 people, including 146 volunteers, took part in the Street Count which aims to find the number of people sleeping rough or in temporary overnight shelter throughout the Sydney CBD and inner city suburbs.
Previous City of Sydney Street Counts found 399 rough sleepers during winter 2009, 342 during summer 2009 and 354 in winter 2008.
by Ehssan Veiszadeh
