Contributed by Adam Carlton

Walk the streets on a morning in any Australian city or regional centre, and you can’t help but notice how many people are sleeping roof. In a country with the wealth and potential of this one the visible homelessness is a disgrace.

Australia now has 127,680 sleeping on the streets according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (AB). This is an underestimation based on the last Census in 2021. Many of the homeless do not find themselves in the statistics. Estimates of those who have found themselves living in their cars is up to three times those sleeping in the street. We are talking here of not far from half a million Australians, some of them with their children, without a home.

Photo from the West Australian: Stirling Council Rangers target car sleepers at Scarborough in West Australia

It is no surprise that tent encampments have risen across cities, regional centres, and along riverbanks in all states. Something is very wrong here. Most damning is the failure of authorities to consider and apply solutions to homelessness. The best they can do is sweep the problem under the carpet.

This attitude has led councils to use the police to forcefully evict the homeless because they are not a good look. It has happened in Melbourne and Sydney and other cities. Now Queensland is taking the lead. Brisbane City Council, The City of Moreton Bay, and the Gold Coast City Council, have sent their goon to tear down homeless encampments. They are not the first, nor will they be the last to do this.

Homeless people do not need mistreatment. They need solutions to homelessness.

Photo by Ethan Rix/ABC News: People standing up for the homeless in Adelaide

To be homeless in Australia not only means having no home. It also means facing discrimination, degrading treatment, and sometimes assault. When these wrongs are heaped on one group of vulnerable people, there exists a mindset in the heads of those who do this, which threatens the wellbeing of others.

It is easy to blame the victim. This does not get rid of homelessness, which is not a lifestyle. Homelessness is an outcome of poverty, and sometimes, the failure of the health system to provide support for those unable to cope.

More than anything else, the problem is that people are homeless because they do not have the money for a home. They are a market failure in a society that put the investor above of the basic human right to a decent home. This is the real problem.

Photo from Streetsmart: A message at a tent a homeless encampment at Martin Place in Sydney

The cost of housing is not the only part. The cost of basic necessities like food and medicines is rising fast. Rising social problems in a society where people are easily discarded, where connection with family and community have become increasingly out of reach, is a recipe for growing mental health problems and inability to cope with life.

Ahead of us is the likelihood of even more poverty and social disintegration. The number of homeless will be even greater than they are now.

In 2025, it is high time Australia put into law the human right to have a decent home. On the back of this, federal and state governments should launch a program of housing for the homeless that meets their needs and on a scale that makes a real difference. This is the humane thing to do. Society has a responsibility to lift those who are worst off, and government is supposed to act on our behalf. This is especially true in times of economic uncertainty.