An advocate for Melbourne’s homeless has praised the City of Melbourne for raising awareness for those living on the city’s streets.
As part of Homelessness Prevention Week, beginning on the 3rd of August, the City of Melbourne will team up with social enterprise STREAT.
A pop-up community education café will be held at the Melbourne Town Hall, where guests can grab a coffee and listen to panels discuss issues surrounding homelessness.
Nick Pearce, a 22-year-old RMIT Professional Communication graduate, became involved with the local homeless community in late 2014.
He co-founded Facebook page ‘Homeless of Melbourne’, which shares candid portraits and conversations with the city’s homeless, with friend Marcus Crook.
The page now has 26,000 likes, and led Mr Pearce to co-found HoMie, a store in Melbourne Central that contributes profits to the local homeless population.
The store aims to bolster unemployed youths’ chances of finding a job, by running in-store resume writing classes.
Mr Pearce commends Homelessness Prevention Week and any “innovative initiatives” that work to tackle homelessness.
Becoming involved with the local community completely transformed Mr Pearce’s perception of homeless people and their circumstances.
“I’d be the first to put my hand up and admit that I previously made assumptions, stereotyped and ignored people that were sleeping rough on the streets,” Mr Pearce said.
Mr Pearce thinks it’s imperative we change our attitude in order to combat youth homelessness and stop the cycle those living on the streets experience.
“Now I can wholeheartedly attest to the fact that the vast majority of people experiencing homelessness are nothing more than victims of circumstance.”
“People on the street are just like you and me- yet the simple difference is that they’ve often been dealt a bad hand of cards. Perhaps the most important thing you can give to someone who’s doing it tough is understanding.”
Empathy and commitment are key factors in finding a permanent solution to the homelessness crisis, which sees one in 200 Australians without a home on any given night.
“An emotional investment is obviously far more sustainable than a one-off donation. If we understand the reasons why things have happened, we can work together and find out what needs to be done,” Mr Pearce said.
Guests of the HoMe pop-up café will be able to talk with representatives from initiatives including Infoxchange, the Council to Homeless Persons, The Big Issue and Homeground real estate about issues surrounding homelessness.
Catherine Adcock from Homelessness Australia says that the ultimate aim of Homelessness Prevention Week is “to encourage action to end homelessness” permanently.
Past events have ranged from “Hotdog for Homelessness” to school sleep outs, and Ms Adcock said this year’s line up is also “extremely exciting”.
HoMie Pop-up will open from 8 am until 2pm from August 4 until August 6 at the Melbourne Town Hall (90-130 Swanston Street).
