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Airdate: Struggle Street

Real life Housos? This SBS ob doc filmed families living in public housing for a period of 6 months.

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Next month SBS premieres observational series Struggle Street.

Produced by KEO Films Australia, the three part series filmed families living in public housing in western Sydney, for a period of six months.

In the heart of the ‘lucky country’ some Australian families and individuals are living on the fringes, facing the daily hardships of unemployment, drug addiction and illness; struggling just to get by.

New three-part, fly on the wall observational documentary series Struggle Street gives a voice to those doing it tough right on the doorstep of Australia’s most affluent cities.

Filmed in the public housing estates of Sydney’s western suburbs, residents invited cameras in for exclusive, uncensored access to their lives over a six month period. The result is an eye-opening glimpse at real life in under-resourced Australian communities – raw, honest and unfiltered.

Telling their own stories in their own voices, Struggle Street shines a light on part of Australian society often overlooked and misunderstood. Their stories are at times confronting, but also heartwarming and inspiring.

The program uncovers how a range of complex issues– low-incomes, unemployment, postcode discrimination, minimal education, addiction, long term illness and generational cycles of disadvantage – which shape the lives of these residents.

In Struggle Street, meet the people behind the labels ‘dole bludgers’, ‘housos’, ‘druggos’, and find out the circumstances and life events that led them to the difficult situations they face today.

Peta and husband Ashley have ten kids and eighteen grandkids between them. Both were employed, Peta in the catering industry and Ashley as an interstate truck driver for 30 years, until severe family illness forced them out of work and onto benefits. Physical and mental illness, disability and drug addiction are part of their daily life, as they try and do their best for their kids, make ends meet and keep their family together.

Bob’s wife suffered a catastrophic medical condition and his life has been on a downward spiral ever since, battling drug addiction and the housing authorities. Bob’s girlfriend Billie-Jo is pregnant and, born a methadone addict, is managing her own drug issues before the birth of their baby.

21-year-old Erin is a single mum and has taken homeless teenager Bailee under her wing as she tries to get a roof over her head and her life on track.

William is an Indigenous man living rough in the bush just outside Mt Druitt, using homemade slingshots to hunt birds to eat. William doesn’t have formal ID documents and, caught between two cultures, is struggling to find his place in society.

Young adult Chris has tense relationships with both his mum, and her twin sister Aunt Michelle who he lives with. Dealing with constant family turmoil, his own mental illness, and living in an area plagued with high youth unemployment, Chris has just managed to land his first job as a cleaner and with it a reason to stay on the straight and narrow.

What emerges through the most challenging of circumstances are powerful stories of family bonds, love, resilience and hope, and a determination to make the best of what you’ve got when you’re on Struggle Street.

Wednesday 6 May at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.

3 Responses

  1. To defame an entire area based on a few people that appear to have had a tough hand dealt to them is offensive. To compare this to the housos show makes it worse. Housos was a satirical show that did not attempt to be taken seriously, this is trying to pose as a documentary about the suburb of Mt Druitt when in fact most people that live in the area are nothing like those in the SBS preview of the show. The premise of this is defamatory and will cause discrimination against an entire community. To use people like this for entertainment is disgusting. The production company and the SBS should be ashamed of themselves for making and airing this trash.

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