FIVE out of every one thousand people in Bendigo are homeless and two are marginally housed, a new Murray Primary Health Network (PHN) report on the issue reveals.<\/p>\n
The report, Housing Instability and Health, was published last month and probes the effect of housing problems on people’s primary health needs.<\/p>\n
It was designed to highlight strengths and gaps in the capacity of primary healthcare providers to meet the health needs of people dealing with homelessness, and to identify opportunities to improve access to services for them.<\/p>\n
The figures are based on 2021 Census data, which showed that there were 2705 people experiencing homelessness and 2297 who were marginally housed in the Murray PHN’s 100,000-square-kilometre region.<\/p>\n
That equated to four people being homeless and three being marginally housed out of every 1000 people.<\/p>\n
For the Central Victoria sub-region, Greater Bendigo recorded 562 homeless people and 246 people only marginally housed, for a total of 808 (five homeless and two marginally housed for every 1000) \u2013 easily the highest number in the sub-region’s six local government areas.<\/p>\n
But that detail is offset somewhat by the fact that Greater Bendigo hosts close to half of the sub-region’s estimated population of about 250,000 people.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Murray PHN CEO Matt Jones said addressing homelessness and the needs of homeless people must be a key priority for primary health networks around Australia.<\/p>\n
“People who are experiencing homelessness or unstable housing situations often find it difficult to break a poor health cycle,” Mr Jones said.<\/p>\n
“For example, poor health can undermine housing stability or lead to homelessness through loss of income or increased care needs.<\/p>\n
“At the same time, unstable or inadequate housing can worsen health due to stress, unsafe living conditions and lack of access to the health services that they need.”<\/p>\n
Mr Jones said while state and federal governments were working to increase housing stock across the country, it falls to local agencies to help people struggling with the extended impacts of homelessness.<\/p>\n
“And the evidence is clear \u2013 longer term homelessness can significantly shorten a person’s life,” he said.<\/p>\n
“A stable roof over your family’s head is not a luxury \u2013 it is one of the basic building blocks of life and should not be too much to expect as a member of a first world society.<\/p>\n
“Those of us who enjoy the comfort and security of stable housing don’t always recognise that people just like us can end up homeless through no fault of their own.”<\/p>\n
The full report is available on the Murray PHN website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FIVE out of every one thousand people in Bendigo are homeless and two are marginally housed, a new Murray Primary Health Network (PHN) report on the issue reveals. The report, Housing Instability and Health, was published last month and probes the effect of housing problems on people’s primary health needs. It was designed to highlight […]<\/p>\n