Calling all agents and landlords this winter – Help solve the housing crisis for our Blue Mountains families this winter.
A networking event on Tuesday, June 20, is aimed at bringing together Thrive Services housing workers and real estate property manager and sales agents to help house Blue Mountains families before the damaging effects of the winter sets in.
The breakfast will be at the Gingerbread House starting at 7:30am.
Currently Thrive Services are supporting over 30 families with young children, who are looking for homes or at immediate risk of homelessness in the Blue Mountains this winter. This number is set to increase.
This event is hosted by Thrive Housing Services and designed to attract real estate agents and landlords to encourage them to work cooperatively with agencies like Thrive to help house children and their families this winter.
“We know from the families our service & others have supported through their experience of homelessness, that it is often due to no fault of their own,” said Angelique Sasagi, Executive Officer of Thrive family services.
“More often It is due to economic issues(like an unexpected bill), health concerns or family crises such as domestic violence or illness.”
The effect on being homeless for children in these families is overwhelmingly damaging, and can impact them in so many ways, so our staff do work from the belief that “every family needs a home”, said Ms Sasagi.
Evidence suggests that children suffer the most in these instances and they represent one of the largest groups of those homeless in Australia. 27 per cent of people experiencing homelessness are aged under 18 years of age and this isn’t considering those young people that couch surf or are staying temporarily with relatives away from home. From these 27 per cent of children and young people that currently use specialist homelessness services (such as Thrive Housing Services), 16 per cent are children aged 0-10 years old.
More than 70,000 people supported by homelessness services in 2014-2015 were aged 0-17 years.
“There will also be some guest speakers as well as an auction of a fantastic Gingerbread House creation by Jodie to raise fund for families on the day,” said Ms Sasagi.
This event is also about overcoming barriers to help families find homes and to assist staff in establishing networking links to agents in the mountains to come together to find a solution to this issue. This project aims to work towards better outcomes for all - finding tenants for agents and landlords and finding homes for families.
Every family needs a home breakfast networking event will provide an opportunity for Thrive staff and Blue Mountains Agents to come together to help solve the housing problem of obtaining suitable accommodation for families.
Overcome some barriers and misconceptions about homelessness and to assist families in finding a home as winter sets in.