Street Law is a free outreach legal service for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness in Western Australia.
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In the last quarter of the financial year, 2017-18 we did a snapshot analysis to see where our clients were sleeping.
We determined that 65% of our clients were experiencing homelessness, and 35% were at risk of homelessness.
It will be interesting to see what the statistics for 2018-19 show.
BEING COMPASSIONATE
It's what we're all about. During our recent strategic planning meetings, a key value agreed upon by staff, volunteers and our management committee was compassion.
What does this mean practically?
✅we create a supportive community;
✅we are focused on championing people experiencing or at risk of homelessness; and
✅we show kindness to, and have dignity and respect for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
This is also one of the key parts of our service our clients have identified. When asked what they liked about our services, clients often say the people! Good work team 👏🏽
A big WIN 🤩🥳
We are celebrating a big success this homelessness week! We recently managed to negotiate the withdrawal of a huge infringement debt for one of our clients!
Our client has an acquired brain injury, and would regularly use public transport, but forget to pay. Over a number of years they accrued over $30, 000 worth of debt to the Public Transport Authority, with over $25, 000 due to this specific issue.
Over the last year, our team has been getting together information to help our client get an unrestricted travel pass due to the injury and to prevent further infringements. Once this was successful, we focused on negotiating the withdrawal of the infringements from the time of the injury. Later, the Public Transport Authority agreed to withdraw all outstanding infringements.
While this is just one legal issue our client is faced with due to their challenging circumstances, it's made a huge change in their financial situation, and has solved this problem moving forward!
Often, when issues regarding drivers of homelessness are discussed, the focus is on individual factors. While these are important, there are also a number of structural factors that drive people into homelessness. The majority of our clients have fines and infringements which add to their financial burden and are likely to drive them into further debt and create further barriers to them being able to exit homelessness.
👋 FROM THE STREETS
We're back out on the street tonight with our friends at Street Doctor, to provide legal advice for people on Wellington Square.
It's also a great opportunity to welcome our new Solicitor, Anna on board! Welcome Anna 🎉
MYTH BUSTIN' MONDAY 👊🏾
We wouldn't be surprised if you thought being homeless was a crime... because, based on the the way people who are experiencing homelessness are treated, it often looks that way.
This week is Homelessness Week - and we want to share a bit more about the people we help and some of the things they struggle with on a day to day basis that you may never have to think about or deal with.
Most of us have a safe place to call home but the reality is, that almost all of our clients don't have this at all. Where you don't have somewhere safe to stay, it's likely to affect the amount of time you spend outside, your mental and emotional well-being and increase the likelihood of being a victim of crime.
If you're interested in the links between experiencing homelessness and why it's associated with crime, check out this article by Justice Connect's Homeless Law Principal Solicitor: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/03/being-homeless-is-not-a-so-why-are-so-many-jailed
