Housing stress is hurting Tasmania's homeless

This year the theme for Homelessness Week is Housing Ends Homelessness, with the launch to be held on Monday in Hobart, a city experiencing levels of homelessness rates higher than that of the state's population growth.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute's report, which was published in May, showed Hobart was one of three cities where the connection between the homelessness rate and rental affordability was "most striking".

This report also showed an increase in homelessness in Launceston and Burnie.

St Vincent De Paul state president Mark Gaetani remarked at the June CEO Sleepout that Tasmania lacked vision when it came to homelessness.

"Sometimes I think we treat the symptoms of homelessness instead of the causes," Mr Gaetani said.

His cause-focused solution was a collective approach between governments, non-profit organisations and the community, which shared a common agenda, measurement system, mutually-reinforcing activities, continuous communication and coordinated infrastructure.

Such a solution works with the 2019 theme, as housing stress affects 8000 Tasmanian households and is commonly cited as one of the main reasons for homelessness in the state.

The 2016 Census counted 1600 homeless people in Tasmania.

Of those, 8 per cent were sleeping rough, which leaves almost 1500 people who might have a bed, but are still living in insecure situations.

And then there are the 120,000 Tasmanians living below the poverty line.

These figures make up an alarming percentage of our population.

As Shelter Tas chief executive Pattie Chugg points out, this week is about recognising the impact homelessness has on a significant proportion of our community, not just about marking another event off the calendar.