Changing the paradigm: The human story of homelessness
- kirranicolle
- Oct 19
- 6 min read
This past week has marked Anti-Poverty Week, a time to recognise and work to overcome poverty and hardship across the globe. The Salvation Army's Queensland Homelessness Regional Manager SALLY-ANNE CLARK has a special task of caring for those who find themselves with nowhere to go, and as it happens, she is no stranger to this feeling herself. In this interview with SIMONE WORTHING, she talks about the complex reasons why homelessness is becoming more common across the nation, and what we can do about it.
Can you give us an overview of your work in homelessness?
I am a Regional Manager in the Queensland Homelessness stream. I’ve been working for The Salvation Army in homelessness and domestic and family violence (DFV) for 19 years across a whole range of regions and roles in Queensland. I'm based in South East Queensland where we have several programs and teams, including services for women, a temporary supported accommodation service, mobile support teams, first response teams and the veterans support team.
Why does homelessness exist in such a wealthy country?
This is a good question and it is complex. Essentially, the housing and homelessness policies at the federal and state level over the years have led to where we're at with homelessness in Australia. There's been an under-investment in social housing for many decades which, with a range of other contributing factors – including natural disasters, the pandemic, interest rates – have led to housing simply being unavailable and unaffordable. As a whole community, we need to change how we think about housing and homelessness and we need to change the paradigm.
We need all levels of government and community investing into having the right housing, including long-term housing, supportive housing, social and affordable housing. It's about good planning and the right supports and investment for some of our most vulnerable citizens, many of whom have complex needs. It’s about priorities and dispelling misconceptions.
Are there other drivers of homelessness?
While it is structural and systemic issues that have caused homelessness in Australia, some groups are more at risk. These include those who have experienced family and domestic violence, young people, children on care and protection orders, First Nations people, individuals leaving health or social care settings, and older Australians.
People have marriage breakdowns, experience domestic and family violence, mental ill health. They fall sick. They can’t pay their mortgages anymore and lose their homes. A lot of us could end up in that situation, and sometimes the only thing preventing it is having supportive family and friends with resources to help. Sometimes people experiencing homelessness just don't have that and they’re on their own.
How does a person go from having a job, a family and a home on one day, and living on the street the next?
There are so many scenarios, and so many stories. Domestic violence and marriage breakdown is a reason, particularly for women over 50 who often don’t have the savings or the superannuation to afford housing. These social and personal drivers have existed for decades, but the lack of housing means so many more people are now entering into homelessness than ever before.
In the current housing climate, rental vacancy rates are very low and rental costs just keep increasing, to the point of being unaffordable for many.
We are often seeing people reaching out for support, who never have been in situations like this basically because their rent has gone up so much they simply can’t afford it anymore.
Can you share something of your own homelessness experience?
We were a normal family – paying off a mortgage on our home, we had a business that was successful, and I worked in community services. We were involved in our church, local sporting clubs and community, and our three sons attended a private school.
The marriage broke down in 2010 as a result of domestic and family violence, mental ill health, drug and alcohol misuse. Then we lost our home in 2011, which led to myself, my 3 sons and my husband being left with no home.
My sons and I couch-surfed with family and friends, and everything we needed of value was in the car. We had to manage work, school and daily life from that car. One of the boys was separated from us for a while. It was difficult to find places where we could stay together. I wasn’t eligible for social housing due to complications around eligibility and having owned a home. There was stigma and shame, grief and loss.
My ex-husband found himself in various unstable and often unsafe environments, including boarding houses and crisis accommodation services.
We faced multiple challenges, but we had people who could support us, and housing at the time was much more affordable, which is how we were able to eventually find our way out and made our way back into the rental market,
How can we change the paradigm through which we see homelessness?
Well, firstly, it is about examining what you believe about people and housing. Do you believe all people have a right to a home? We need our communities to value people enough that they consider housing a human right for all.
It’s about focusing on the human story. It can be as simple as talking about it at the family barbecue, in your community groups, church, sports teams – talk about what you know, raise awareness, talk about the drivers of homelessness and people not choosing this situation; and be willing to challenge negative stereotypes. Talk about your own experiences and those of people you know.
Sometimes we hear very negative conversations or see things on social media that paint people in a negative light. Be willing to challenge this thinking, be willing to see people as people. The stigma around the homelessness cohort is one of the biggest barriers to seeing the issue differently.
If you know people who have investment properties or are landlords, talk to them about how they may be able to contribute to the solutions.
Perhaps, for example, if people see housing as a way to increase their personal wealth, encourage them to also see it as a way to improve and build healthy communities.
Do people have a spare room? A spare house or unit? A granny flat? Some people might be afraid to consider that, but if it’s an option, perhaps they could talk to their local homelessness and/or housing providers about what they could do, or whether it’s something they should think about?
Can we really end homelessness?
Yes, absolutely we can. We can see it happening in other parts of the world already.
And by ending homelessness, we’re referring to a person’s experience of homelessness becoming brief, rare and non-recurring.
People will still fall into homelessness, even once we've got all the houses and all the support we need. Life events will continue to happen. Someone will still be escaping domestic violence and won’t have anywhere to go, so they will need some form of temporary accommodation. So that’s the brief part of it.
The rare part is that, while homelessness will still happen, it will happen a lot less because we have enough available and affordable housing.
It will be non-recurring because we will have adequate support for people so that they aren't cycling in and out of homelessness.
So, this is absolutely achievable.
Churches and community groups also play a vital role in ending homelessness. Its not just about money and resources, it is also about relationships and healthy communities. It's about people needing genuine connection. Not as a client of the service and not as someone who needs to be helped, but as someone who has something to contribute, and as someone who has the same need for genuine relationships as everyone else.
Sally-Anne Clark has worked in homelessness, housing and domestic and family violence for the past 18 years. She holds qualifications in social welfare, management and more recently, a master’s degree in leadership. She’s passionate about leading people to change the way we serve and see our communities.
