Good question. The short answer is our actions and words have great power.  

It seems we’ve begun to assume homelessness is inevitable. It’s not. For too long we’ve collectively walked past this issue. The reasons why are complex, including we often don’t know what to do in the moment, we think there’s nothing we can personally do to end homelessness, and we misunderstand how/who/what homelessness actually is. There’s lots of stigma and this can stop us from creating change.    

We need our community to know that solutions to homelessness already exist, that homelessness is cheaper to solve than let continue, and there’s examples of significant change happening today in Melbourne.   

We need people to know that when we talk about the issue of homelessness – at the kitchen table, at work, at school, with friends, online, in the media – it raises the profile of this often ‘hidden’ issue, builds our collective understanding and shows there’s a supportive community movement to end homelessness in our city. Building empathy is foundational for lasting systemic change to end homelessness. We’re proudly part of our Melbourne community, and change starts with each of us.