Perth Voice Interactive

A GRIM record was set over the holidays with the highest ever number of people attending Mission Australia’s Christmas Lunch for homeless people in Wellington Square.

It was a turnout that organisers see as a dire sign of the housing and cost-of-living crisis.

2023 marked the 48th lunch run on Christmas day by Mission Australia WA for those in need, with more than 1500 people attending the three-course meal organised by 300 volunteers.

MAWA state director Sue Budalich said the huge turnout reflected the severe housing and cost of living crisis.

“This event is nearly 50 years old, and our team have never seen such a turn-out before,” Ms Budalich said in a post-event statement.

“People who have never been homeless, including people in paid employment, people with mortgages, are struggling to make ends meet and they’re asking Mission Australia for help.”

She said urgent government action was needed to avert higher numbers becoming homeless.

“Our staff on the frontline say the housing situation is the worst they’ve seen, and too many people are having to make hard choices – between putting food on the table, paying the power bill or paying the rent,” and those financial pressures rose over Christmas, Ms Budalich said.

“As rents and interest rates rise and the social housing wait list grows, the number of people pushed into homelessness will only go up.”

Several large housing initiatives from the state government have been in the pipeline but progress is slow, with delays plaguing a range of projects from East Perth’s Common Ground to the long-empty Stirling Towers. 

by DAVID BELL