The Greek community would be “appalled” to know the number of Greek Australians battling homelessness, a Greek Australian homelessness advocate has said.
As the Council for Homeless Persons (CHP) launched its ‘It Takes a Home’ campaign, urging Victorian politicians to commit to homelessness, CHP advocate Angela Kyriakopoulos said the Greek community were not aware of the extent of the problem in their community.
“It’s a lack of awareness. The Greek community would be appalled to know the numbers of Greeks who are homeless in Melbourne,” she said.
While there is no data available on ethnicity and homelessness, Ms Kyriakopoulos said in her years of experience of working in the frontline with Victoria’s 23 000 homeless people, a high number of those were Greek.
“I think it might be a taboo in the Greek community, but there are a lot,” she said.
“And a lot of them have mental health issues, a lot of drug and alcohol issues, and sometimes you think it’s not being addressed by the Greek community.”
Ms Kyriakopoulos said she was often called on to work with Greek Australian clients because of her Greek language skills, and also because she understood the issues facing the community.
“You’re looking at mostly second and third generation Greek Australians, who are caught up between two or three cultures,” she said.
She said the ‘It Takes a Home’ campaign aims to commit all candidates in the upcoming Victorian election on five key issues: “Commit to the current fed govt target to half homelessness by 2020, deliver affordable homes, ensure a better start for children and young people experiencing homelessness, end the cycle of homelessness by providing support where it’s needed, as long as it’s needed, invest in the workforce delivering services to those needs.”
She said the campaign was also about raising public awareness.