2023-09-04
Mandy Nolan, Greens candidate for Richmond and community advocate has today called for local member and Assistant Minister for Social Services Justine Elliot to ensure Fletcher Street Cottage receives government funding to continue providing vital services to the homeless community.
Fletcher Street Cottage, a vital homelessness service in Byron Bay, is on the brink of cutting essential services. Without ongoing government funding the service is struggling to keep up with demand and is being forced to fundraise to retain services. They have only fundraised $230,000 out of the total $1 million required to keep services operating.
Mandy Nolan, Greens Candidate for Richmond, said:
"Fletcher Street Cottage is a lifeline for so many in our community. The fact that the General Manager Louise O'Connell has recently won Byron Community Member of the Year but is still forced to consider cutting services is a heartbreaking testament to the failure of our government to support the most vulnerable.
"With Labor in power at a state and Federal level, the question we must all ask is, 'Where are they?' We cannot play a game of chicken with the lives of the most vulnerable in our community.
“Every day we wait is a day that essential services may be cut. Every day we wait is a day that the most vulnerable in our community suffer.
“Our local Federal Member is the Assistant Minister for Social Services yet the Byron Shire has more rough sleepers than the entire City of Sydney. Where is the support for the social services that our community so desperately needs?
“Labor has the money and the power to step up and provide the funding Fletcher Street Cottage so desperately needs and ensure this vital service continues to serve our community.
Byron Shire has the highest number of rough sleepers in NSW
- The June 2023 annual NSW Street Count has found 300 people sleeping rough in the Byron Shire,
- a significant increase from 2021 (198 people) and 2022 (138 people).
- That’s the highest number of people sleeping rough in the state, ahead of City of Sydney Council which recorded 277 rough sleepers
- This is significantly higher per capita Byron Shire has a population of 36,398 (June 2022 count) while City of Sydney has a population of 248,736 people (June 2020 count)