Insight: June 23

This week, Insight will ask why the face of homelessness is changing and what needs to be done to tackle the issue.

What do a war vet in his late twenties, a woman in her fifties and a man nearing retirement age have in common? They’re all at risk of homelessness.

A growing number of Australians are now a couple of pay packets away from sleeping rough or living in a refuge.

In 2014, 1.6 million Australians struggled to pay rent and on any night, approximately 100,000 Australians are homeless.

Guests include:

Peter Mullaly
“I was a functioning person, I’d been through the Royal Military College, I probably had a lot of pride and ego still in me which probably led to hiding (that I was living in a tent).”

Penny Leemhuis
“There’s 600,000 women 45 and over who are or are at risk of homelessness … I would never have considered myself ever to have been in this position.”

Tim Gray
“Early on, I didn’t tell anyone that I’d had that lifestyle, being homeless.”

Will Ward
Family man. “We’ve lived out of a suitcase for the last eight months, you just don’t feel part of anything anymore.”

Kasy Chambers
CEO Anglicare Australia: “We do a rental survey every year. For someone on NewStart, there was (only) one property that was affordable in all the capital cities put together out of 65,600 properties and it turned out that that was a sofa in a share house.”

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.