With this month's focus on the concerning plight of homelessness faced by an increasing number of women, I took closer notice of an exciting advertisement from a not-for-profit organisation called Homes for Homes, which is featured in the current edition of The Big Issue (a magazine I highly recommend both for its quality and for the ways in which its employment of so many people in challenging economic and personal circumstances)
This ad said that ending homelessness is an issue that is “too big for any one person, business or government to solve alone”. But, it added, unity can bring empowerment. And it had an excellent suggestion for one way of raising revenue to help the homeless.
On the weekend, I merged its suggestion with a critique of a regular feature in our Saturday newspaper, to write the following letter to its letters’ page. It was not published, so I thought I would share it with my fellow Sirens.
'Once again, the Saturday edition shines a light on one of the gravest inequities in our society, that of having a reliable roof over our heads, or not, when we see the super-rich wheeling and dealing with their mega-million-dollar homes (“Auerback’s $25M duplex in the spotlight”, August 3).
At the same time, we are constantly being reminded that the numbers of the homeless keep on rising, with the fastest growing group now experiencing this being older women, many of whom had never been homeless before, according to the Mercy Foundation. And, as one of many possible ways of just slightly levelling the housing playing field, a national organisation called Homes for Homes has come up with a brilliant and tax-deductible idea: that 0.1% of a home’s sale price can be donated to it, to then go on to help build homes for those in need.
For a home selling for $1M, the donation would be just $1,000. So, it’s a great way for the haves to give a helping hand to the have-nots, and just a quick calculation of the four mega-priced homes that were mentioned on Saturday, for a total of $79,500,00, that would result in a total donation of $79,500, a drop in the ocean for one group, and a significant contribution for the other.'
Dr Anne Ring is a health sociologist, freelance writer, and author of “Engaging with Ageing: What matters as we grow older”
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