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�����Թ� has presented submissions to both the Federal and Victorian Governments’ current inquiries into homelessness, with Dr Michael Fotheringham, Chief Executive of �����Թ�, speaking as a witness to both inquires in early July.

'...I do not believe that there is a time when having rough sleepers in a relatively affluent society becomes palatable once more,’ said Dr Fotheringham.

As a part of his presentation to the Victorian Government’s Inquiry, Dr Fotheringham pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that there is a political will to house rough sleepers and protect them from getting the disease, as simply doing nothing is understood to be unacceptable and this raises important questions for homelessness post-pandemic:

‘When do the health consequences of homelessness become acceptable again? Because we already know … that homelessness leads to serious health consequences … At what point do they become acceptable again? I do not believe that there is a time when having rough sleepers in a relatively affluent society becomes palatable once more,’ said Dr Fotheringham.

At the House of Representatives Inquiry into Homelessness in Australia, Dr Fotheringham spoke on the need for a move towards a national framework for addressing homelessness, to achieve more certainty for the service systems in each state and territory, reduce inefficiencies and lead to better service coordination. A crucial feature of such a framework would be ‘to have locally relevant service coordination and local service offerings,’ said Dr Fotheringham.