There are 15,000 people over the age of 55 sleeping rough in Australia on any given night, including 2000 over the age of 75. They’re couch surfing, living in cars, staying in short term accommodation like boarding houses, or seeking shelter on the streets.
There are many reasons why some older people don’t have safe, secure housing. Relationship breakdown, loss of income, insufficient superannuation and poor health can sometimes be to blame. Whatever the reason, IRT Foundation is here to help.
Wollongong Homeless Street Count
Street counts aim to gather accurate information about the number of people sleeping rough in our local area, as well as counting people occupying beds in temporary shelters, transitional and crisis accommodation.
Approximately 50 volunteers assisted with Wollongong’s first ever Homeless Street Count on 19 February.
Rough sleeper data was collected from midnight to 3am and additional data was collected at 5am (Wollongong CBD only). Crisis and Transitional Accommodation data was collected for Wollongong and Shellharbour LGAs.
People living in boarding houses, staying with friends or living in other forms of non-secure housing are not counted.
Counting people experiencing primary homelessness is only one way of collecting data, but it is an important one.
People sleeping rough (Wollongong CBD): 61
People sleeping in crisis or transitional accommodation (Wollongong and Shellharbour LGAs): 614