Around 100 people joined the Salvation Army’s ‘Walking Home’ event in Shepparton on Friday to raise awareness of those who don’t have a home to walk to.
The Homelessness Week event included a walk around Victoria Park Lake and a free sausage sizzle and water to hydrate walkers on an unseasonably warm day.
The Salvation Army’s Jim Gow said the event was about increasing awareness and decreasing the stigma surrounding it.
He said there were factors causing homelessness, including rising living costs, domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse, among others, but ultimately, it was a shortage of bricks and mortar.
“You can imagine if you have an 18- or 19-year-old just out of school with no references yet, no rental history and going to open houses applying for rentals up against surgeons coming to work in Shepparton at the hospital,” Mr Gow said.
He said many people weren’t aware the issue of homelessness was so large — Greater Shepparton ranked 23rd of 88 in Victoria for severity — so events such as Walking Home and the forum the organisation hosted earlier in the week were a great opportunity to bring it into the spotlight.
“Because we don’t step over homeless people like they do in metro Melbourne train stations doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist,” Mr Gow said.
“In some ways, it’s worse here. It’s bitter, colder, harder.
“Up to 436 people can be homeless in any one night.”
Mr Gow said he believed the answer to improving — and eventually solving — the problem required a holistic approach with a wraparound of all services that specialised in areas such as mental health, violence and substance abuse.
He said a co-ordination of services was needed to understand each individual’s situation.
“These are people, not just a number. It’s challenging to address all of it at once,” Mr Gow said.
“We need allies in all different services, people who genuinely want to help people.
“We can win together.”