ROSIES RESPONSE TO THE FEDERAL BUDGET

Rosies, like many other charities across Australia, will need to expand its services to meet the needs of vulnerable families and others who live on tight budgets may find themselves homeless or houseless.

The Federal Budget has raised concerns for many local charities as disadvantaged and vulnerable groups are at higher risk than ever due to funding cuts.

The axing of government jobs and amalgamation of many State based services will stress families reliant on support services, tightening their already precarious budgets and making homelessness a very real possibility. Cuts to Family Tax Benefit will be the breaking point for many vulnerable families.

Rosies has been seeing families living in their cars in our regional outreaches across Queensland over the past year, and numbers are rising.

Currently 27% of homeless in Queensland are children, and we expect this figure to rise as more families are pushed out on to the street.

Our Ipswich outreach reported 90 people in the park recently and 30 of them were children.

With such alarming numbers of families reaching out to Rosies for help, we can expect the demand on our outreaches to increase.

In fact, Rosies is receiving calls to expand with requests from the Wynnum community to establish an outreach locally.

Local emergency relief providers have reported a significant increase in requests for help from people at risk of homelessness – families and individuals reliant on Centrelink payments who do not have enough money for food after rent is paid, and some who do not receive income support at all.

So far this year, just one emergency relief provider has had requests for assistance from 160 individuals and families. Their clients are households at significant risk of homelessness, and budget cuts increase this risk significantly.

As some of these budget cuts don’t take effect until 2015-2017, Rosies needs to plan and prepare for an increasing number of marginalised people who will need our support.

It is crucial that Rosies further engage in local community partnerships in order to resource and provide support to the growing need that
lies ahead. We would like to secure some corporate partnerships, so we can engage skilled volunteers to assist us with providing services
and bridging the gaps for the marginalised and disadvantaged in our community.

With such alarming numbers of families reaching out to Rosies for help, we can expect the demand on our outreaches to increase.

Our Winter newsletter is out – to download a copy, .

Donate Now