Airdate: Struggle Street: The Point Responds

NITV will screen a panel discussion on Indigenous issues as featured this week in Struggle Street.

The second episode of Struggle Street focusses on homelessness and includes the eviction of Queensland resident Norma and her six children from public housing by a large contingent of police.

Struggle Street: The Point Responds is co-hosted by Allan Clarke and Julie Nimmo and will hear directly from Norma about her experience.

The show will also include a strong panel line-up including Chairman of the Stronger Smarter Institute and Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Chris Sarra; Greens NSW Spokesperson for Justice and Police, David Shoebridge, Family Law specialist, Cheryl Orr and CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Society, John Falzon.

NITV Channel Manager, Tanya Orman said: “Struggle Street: The Point Responds investigates what it’s like for Indigenous families like Norma’s; surviving the threat of homelessness with children. Norma’s story is the story of many others and Struggle Street puts a spotlight on the experience of disadvantage and trauma, and the impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.”

The panel will explore discrimination and the need for culturally safe services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in regards to police, health and housing. It will also take a look at the issues of accessing and securing safe and affordable housing overcrowding and home ownership.

Other topics that the panel will shed light on will include the erosion of the welfare safety net, the spectre of child removal, and unresolved trauma and grief.

In 2015-16 an estimated 61,700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people used specialist homelessness services.*

1 in 4 Indigenous clients (23%) are children aged under 10 and there is twice as many Indigenous female clients aged over 18 (42%) than Indigenous male clients (21%).*

Aboriginal women may face discrimination in the housing market or may be unable to find housing that is appropriate to their needs due to high birth rates** and the need for more than four or five bedroom homes which are in short supply both in housing and private rental.

*AIHW: Specialist Homelessness Services 2015-16
**ABS 2010: The Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Struggle Street: The Point Responds Wednesday 29 November at 9.40pm on NITV.
Struggle Street 8:35pm 28-30th November and 5-7th December on SBS.