‘A sobering indictment’: 14 homeless people die a year in public parks or countryside in Australia, analysis finds | Homelessness
Analysis of undercover death reports reveals an average of 14 people die each year in Australia while sleeping in public parks or rural areas.
The deaths of a young international student sleeping rough in Hyde Park, a young homeless mother dying of sepsis in Western Australia and a newborn baby in a makeshift homeless camp near Wagga beach have sparked a wave of grief and shock in recent weeks.
The deaths have triggered a renewed focus on Australia’s homelessness crisis and the lack of social and emergency housing options; This puts vulnerable and rough sleepers into dangerous situations.
Analysis of criminal records, most of which are not publicly available, reveals disturbing numbers of homeless deaths in public parks and rural areas, including river banks.
The analysis shows 54 people sleeping in public parks died between 2010 and 2020.
During the same period, 85 homeless Australians died in rural areas including bush, desert, beaches and riverbanks.
The analysis was commissioned by the Guardian as part of a years-long investigation into homeless deaths and was carried out by the National Forensic Information Service, which has access to non-public reports of deaths to state coroners.
The Guardian has examined more than 600 deaths from homelessness since 2024, showing that the crisis and systemic failures, such as a lack of social housing, under-resourcing of homelessness services and gaps in the healthcare system, have contributed to massive premature deaths among insomniacs, leading to a three-decade life expectancy gap with the general population.
Data Australian Institute of Health and Welfare It shows that the waiting list for social housing for those “most in need” has continued to worsen every year since 2015, reaching record levels in June 2024.
Over the past two years, AIHW data shows that the number of people who were already homeless when they first accessed homelessness services increased by 11%, and the number of people rough sleeping at the start of support increased by 25%.
On Saturday, a 37-year-old mother was hospitalized after one of her newborn twin babies died. The woman lived in a homeless camp near Wagga beach on the Murrumbidgee River.
Camp residents told ABC they had nowhere else to go.
Mary Ann Miller, a young Aboriginal mother of seven in WA, died of sepsis on March 28 after being evacuated from public housing. Even though she was the victim of alleged domestic violence, she was waiting for housing.
These two deaths occurred months after Nepali teenager Bikram Lama was found dead in Hyde Park.
The llama was sleeping near the busy entrance to St James Station and died in his sleeping bag in the bushes above the tunnel entrance. His body remained there for about a week until it was discovered.
Authorities are still awaiting DNA testing to officially confirm Lama’s identity after requesting samples from his family, who live in the remote village of Makwampur, south of Kathmandu.
Support workers say his death has exposed significant gaps in support services for non-residents who have arrived in Australia legally but whose visas have expired.
University of Notre Dame professor Lisa Wood, who has led groundbreaking research into homelessness deaths, said the circumstances of the deaths were shocking and should bring the country to “a turning point in its response to homelessness.”
“This is a serious indictment of societal abandonment and systemic failure,” he said. “Few would dispute that Australia is in the midst of a homelessness and housing crisis. Governments have announced significant investment in response, but many of these policy efforts appear to be based on the assumption that we can easily build our way out of the homelessness crisis.”
Wood said housing should be clearly recognized as a human right, with clear legal obligations to house homeless people, similar to the situation in Scotland.
“We must prioritize emergency shelter and housing options for the most vulnerable,” he said. “As in countries such as England and Ireland, pregnant women and women with young children should be at the top of this list. This commitment is also urgently needed in Australia.”
Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said the federal budget next week needed to invest more in social housing and homelessness supports to stop deaths.
“In just a few weeks, homelessness killed a baby, a young mother, and a student,” Colvin said. “How many more people need to die before governments provide the social housing and homelessness support people need to stay safe?”
The federal government has pledged to deliver 55,000 social and affordable homes by mid-2029, committing $10 billion through the Housing Australia Future Fund in 2023.
The latest government data shows nearly 6,000 social and affordable homes have been delivered since May 2022.
“The Albanian government has invested in new social housing, but they need to continue investing to meet the need for social housing that has been neglected and unmet for decades,” Colvin said.
St Vincent’s hospital homeless outreach team in Sydney, which tried to help Lama, said Lama’s non-settled status had effectively denied him a path out of homelessness.
“Tomorrow I will meet another Bikram: sick, homeless, at risk,” Erin Longbottom, director of St Vincent’s homeless health care unit, wrote in a Guardian column on Thursday. “This is a human being who needs my help. Why is the system telling me that I should be eligible for life-saving care that I can provide based on their visa status?”
