Who you pay to run Aussie Detention Centres

Yes, Serco...Never heard of them?? Originally RCA of Recording industry fame's UK cinema services unit, today they provide a range of services to a variety of governments worldwide...

• Serco-operators of Villawood Immigration Detention Centre where a Fijian man awaiting deportation was recently able to commit suicide having climbed on the rooftop---
• Serco are short listed to run NZs jails in association with some iwi groups...the bedmates from hell?? You decide.....
• Serco-At an english jail they run they increased prisoner accommodation by 20% -by putting a bed in each toilet.Smart!!
• Serco-now a second detainee,an Iraqi man, has ommitted suicide after expressing continued frustration at his consultants failure to understand his issues.

Congratulations Year 12 2010 -Schools Out!!

Wooooohooooo!!!!! Schoooooooooools Out!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Party!!!

The Long Suffering Silent victim of Homelessness

  Homeless People worldwide watch in disbelief as  Poverty industry pariahs, bureaucrats and legitimate homelessness organisations jockey for relevance from increasingly distant pedestals cushioned by increasingly thick cushions lined with big denomination dollar bills. 


  SydneyHomeless have raised our voice in numerous posts identifying various organisations and "homelessness strategies" which we consider at best undeserving of public corporate or government support. In reviewing our actions and in the course of our online presence, we noted a glaring gap in our coverage of homelessness and marginalisation issues.That "Gap" is perhaps the key to ending the current and demonstrably unsuccessful strategies promoted and operated at great cost. It has been most remiss of us not to give this crucial silent sufferer more prominence and we hope that this post goes at least some way to redressing our oversight.

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Sydney Homeless Overarching Position

  Followers of our blogs will be aware that we are solution, not maintenance focussed. Our aim is to drive and support initiatives which aim to end homelessness for those who wish to be housed in a manner which addresses the reasonable living and engagement needs identified by the homeless person. We continue to support the choice of the few homeless who do not wish to be housed in any way to remain living outdoors in the area of their choice.


 Looking at the history of Western Capitalist State Homelessness and Social Housing Initiatives over the last 60 years it is fair to draw the following conclusions.

1. Homelessness increases in direct parallel with the per capita growth of "Super Salaried Income Earners."
2. As economies grow, so do homeless numbers.As economies slow,so do homeless numbers-but homeless numbers do not decrease where there is negative economic growth.
3. In English speaking Western 1st World economy nations ,State and NGO delivered homelessness strategies seek to maintain or cycle, rather than end homelessness and economic marginalisation.
4. As in 3,there is invariably growth in marginalisation and homelessness "service provider" assets and revenues.In many cases such growth is contingent upon the growth of homeless/marginalised numbers.
5. We have found not a single instance of an Australian government or NGO initiated program which uses a "future zero" objective target as the framework for analysing timelining measuring and implementing homelessness or marginalisation strategies. Simply put, (to date that we know of) there is no existing strategy known which has the end goal of eliminating the perceived issue- homelessness and economic marginalisation.
6. Because current programs have objectives which fall short of ending the problem or significantly reducing occurrence or recurrence,there is invariably an upward pressure on donors sponsors and government for funds.
7. As self annointed service providers grow and "more professional" management is implemented, the cost of "services" increases while the delivery of "services  identified by constituency as positive" stagnates, or loses quality. The overwhelming majority of these services seek to maintain or mitigate,but not solve,the problem.
8. In Australia assistance options only become available "after the fact." For example, rather than act to stabilise an existing tenancy ( or mortgage) government help only becomes available once the home is lost.Sometimes the unplanned loss of home is driven by a missed employer payment.More often,the driver is increased rent while incomes are locked into legislatively constrained miniscule incremental increases which bear no relationship to increased cost of living. Each is invariably accompanied by a downgrading of the tenants credit rating- and blacklisting on the Register of Bad Tenants,undermining the now unemployed person/families ability to restore housing.
9. The combined "The Road Home" and Stimulus outlay of $6.6billion Tax Dollars by the Rudd-Gillard Federal Government will NOT end homelessness-nor was it designed to. In fact,over 1/3 of this outlay will be spent on improving and maintaining the delivery infrastructure of the relevant (and we submit some highly irrelevant) NGOs and bureaucracies.They have failed to deliver appropriately located affordable accommodation.They have failed to accommodate many of the old frail long term homeless as well as other long term homeless.

The Missing Link
Coalition Leader Tony Abbott recently stated in relation to welfare marginalisation that "There are no Free lunches." He was correct and in being so managed to criticise the Howard Government of which he was a minister and the subsequent Gillard Rudd Labor Government for their incapability to resolve the issue.

 Which brings us to the Silent victims of Homelessness. No we are not referring to the numerous and swelling numbers of homeless children. Nor do we refer to homeless people.

 The silent victims of homelessness are the taxpayers. Always left out of the overall snapshot yet perenially obliged to carry the cost of decades of failed programs.Most homeless people are or were taxpayers too. Governments who have usurped the role of speaking on behalf of the silent taxpayer work assidiously to extend their reach deeper into the taxpayers pocket. We think this is wrong,that a good government would be looking at ways of sparing taxpayers the expense. Take The Gulf States,where in these good times nobody pays income tax.Australias good times are here,now,with huge coal ores and gas exports.Are these ofsetting your tax liability?Not really.Nor is the perpetual call for ever more government funds for a succession of failed homelessness programs. 


 We say that a "zero problem" end game must be the governments objective approach with a 20 year aim of ending homelessness completely.Not by perenially increasing the call on taxpayers, but by ensuring that adequate appropriate affordable accommodation is available in the locations where the jobs are,by postcode.

 For example,statistics show that the City of Sydney has just 170,000 residents but 600,000 daily "visitors." Our research which may not be accurate,calculates 275,000 current employees in the Sydney City area.The simple act of ensuring appropriate accommodation for all employees at rates affordable within those pay scales, within the postcode of employment,will go a long was to alleviating homelessness.If you want to have 40 percent of the CBD workers on minimum wages,ensure there is affordable accommodation at the planning stage.A development levy of 4 percent of development cost for social housing (including civil) to be spent within postcode would also assist.Perhaps most importantly is the reintroduction of affordability to the housing market.Perhaps legislation could be passed forcing lenders to hold a percentage of their mortgages in deemed affordable housing,according to set government contracts,with government acting as guarantor,as a first home buyer option?These are the discussions we need to have, not the perennial failures of the past.These are zero Taxpayer cost solutions with significant urban transport reduction,green and climate benefits.Can taxpayers afford NOT to embrace these strategies?


 We call for The Road Home to be abandoned--its an expensive Road to Nowhere.


 We call for the removal of NGOs from all current delivery structures and their replacement with local council administered social housing structures.


 We call for the devolution of all non-housing functions of current NGO providers to the relevant government departments.


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