RMIT experts available for comment on Homelessness Week

Professor Guy Johnson (0419 545 305 or guy.johnson@rmit.edu.au )

Topics: homelessness, public housing, prevention

“What worries me, and has for a while now, is that we have really strong evidence on the most effective way to prevent homelessness, but governments, from both the left and right, continually ignore the evidence.

“There is going to be a time when governments will have to face up to the fact that funding more homelessness services is not the smartest way to spend the public’s money. 

“If governments in Australia actually want to reduce the number of people who experience homelessness they should focus and fund programs that prevent it.

“The best way to prevent homelessness is to build more public housing.

“The evidence we have is unequivocal – public housing is the most powerful factor that prevents homelessness among disadvantaged households.”

Professor Guy Johnson is the Director of the Unison Housing Research Lab at RMIT University and is Australia’s first professor of homelessness. Guy worked in homelessness services prior to working in academia. He has authored more than 60 publications on homelessness and housing instability.

Dr Juliet Watson (0407 915 910 or juliet.watson@rmit.edu.au )

Topics: homelessness, social housing, women's homelessness, family violence and homelessness, youth homelessness

“Social housing has been underfunded for an extended period of time. Without serious investment in social housing, the homelessness situation in Australia will not improve.

“Most people experiencing homelessness are actually not sleeping rough - they are hidden from view and are more likely to be found couch surfing and staying in emergency accommodation and cheap hotels.

“Gender-based violence is both a cause and an outcome of homelessness for women.

“Domestic and family violence can lead women to homelessness, and homelessness can expose them to further violent situations.”

Dr Juliet Watson is the deputy director of the Unison Housing Research Lab and a senior lecturer in homelessness in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. She is also president of the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association. Watson has extensive research, teaching, and practice experience in the areas of homelessness, violence against women, and youth. She has also provided expert media comment on these areas to a wide-range of outlets. 

Professor Libby Porter (0487 177 859 or libby.porter@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: public housing, dispossession, impact on homelessness

"We have 84,000 people languishing on the waiting list for access to public housing while the Victorian Government plans to sell 11 public housing estates under its renewal program, enabling developers to make a profit on public housing assets.

"This real estate model flies in the face of the housing crisis and will end up serving fewer low-income Victorians.

“Housing is the bedrock of everything we need and do. It provides you shelter or an address if you need to get medication and helps our mental health and wellbeing by giving us stability.

“We know and have seen the severe risks people who experience homelessness face.

“The most effective way to address this issue is to directly fund and build public housing at a scale that can reduce the waiting list to zero.”

Professor Libby Porter is a researcher and educator at the RMIT Centre for Urban Research. Her research is focused on how urban development causes dispossession and displacement and what we should do about it. In particular, she’s focused on Indigenous rights in urban planning, and on public housing.

***

For media enquiries, please contact RMIT Communications: 0439 704 077 or news@rmit.edu.au