About 100 people have reportedly gathered in Sydney’s Shannon Reserve in Surry Hills to take part in an annual service remembering those who died while homeless.
The service, organised by Wesley Mission and other homeless service providers and inner city churches, was one of three held at different locations in inner Sydney as part of Homelessness Week.
REMEMBERING THE LOST: Rev Keith Garner, Wesley Mission CEO, with Federal Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek and Norm, who has been homeless and is currently at Wesley Mission’s Edward Eagar Lodge. PICTURE: Supplied.
Rev Keith Garner, Wesley Mission CEO, told those who gathered for the service that it was important homeless people never be forgotten and that under God’s grace, everyone counts.
“Everybody counts, everybody matters – there is no hierarchy of importance,” he said. “There is no significance for some and insignificance for others. We may sometimes do that through our attitudes but in the bigger picture – and it is always the bigger picture – quite clearly God has no hierarchy of importance. And he rebukes us with all our misplaced priorities.”
Rev Garner said that suicide among young and homeless people is “something we cannot pass by”, adding that there was a “growing sense in indignity about forgetting people”.
“As we remember those who have gone before us, they have not been forgotten by us. We are going to keep reminding our community that everybody matters, especially those who have little, particularly those who have little of this world’s opportunities. We remember today many who have died far too young, many who have died because they find it very difficult to find accommodation. We remember them because they matter.”
Federal Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek, who was present at the service, said it was an important event for all of the community.
“Anybody who has lived in the inner-city has known people who are homeless and then next week you just don’t see them anymore,” she said. “Everyone has a family, everybody’s got a past, everybody’s got a future and we should acknowledge that.”
She said that there as an ongoing need to invest in accomodation and provide people with social supports and work.
The service comes at a time when Wesley Mission says the numbers of those sleeping rough in Sydney are “at an all time high” and emergency accommodation centres and affordable housing stocks are full. They also note that around a quarter of the city’s homeless are under 18 while 15 per cent are aged between 19 and 24.
Norm, who has been living in the streets since he was 14 and has now found shelter at Wesley Mission’s Edward Eagar Lodge, said he had come to the memorial service to remember his friends and cherish their memories.
“I’ve lost two or three mates on the streets; it’s a common occurrence. It’s life as we know it…” he said. “I also came (to the service) to respect those who are living on the streets. Just in the past year I have noticed there’s a lot more people on the streets than there was. There’s a lack of housing and what there is, it’s not affordable.”
