Homelessness Reaches New Highs - Report

New statistics on the social and economic costs of homelessness have been revealed in a new report that claims that each homeless person costs society on average $29,450 per year.

The PwC report in conjunction with NSW homeless service organisation, Jewish House says that 105,000 men, women and children are homeless on any given night in Australia – a 23 per cent  increase in the number of people staying in specialist homelessness services from 2006.

The report says 28,000 people are currently experiencing homelessness in NSW alone – the highest in the country –  and just under nine per cent of Sydney’s homeless live in the Eastern Suburbs in a very concentrated area.

Jewish House has also revealed plans to help 2500 people off the streets, saving NSW $243.2 million.

Jewish House’s services help the unemployed and homelessness break the cycle, including the proposed Project 2500 program.

The program called Project 2500 is to run over a three year period in Sydney’s Inner City and Eastern Suburbs and is described as a non-denominational approach to ‘people helping people’, aimed at preventing long-term homelessness.

“This is a pilot and we are taking ownership by leading the way and setting directions so that eventually this approach can be rolled out and used by other organisations across the state and the country,” Jewish House CEO Rabbi Mendel Kastel said.

“The potential impact of Project 2500 to the State of NSW is up to an estimated $243.2million (minimum of $74.2million) reduction in the cost of homelessness over the lifetime of 2,500 people it is designed to help.”