Chris Hemsworth says Aussies should be doing more
Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth believes Australians should be doing more about an issue very close to his heart.
Chris Hemsworth, the Hollywood movie star, wants to see the privileged doing more for families and children living on the brink.
Using his star power, he has spoken of his awareness “that a lot of people are doing it hard”. He wants people like himself to contribute and to also raise awareness to the government about the issue.
It has emerged Hemsworth has been a major donor for the past decade to the Fletcher Street Cottage which serves as a homeless hub in his home town of Byron Bay.
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The cottage for people who might have spent the night in their car, on a couch or on the beach provides services including meals, a shower and laundry, a haircut and staff for a phone call to sort out Centrelink issues.
It is run by the local non-profit Byron Bay Community Centre whose general manager Louise O’Connell says philanthropic donations allow specialist staff amid the many volunteers.
The people turning up for breakfast have increased over the past two years from 30 to around 80. The NSW government recently provided funding to the cottage.
There are very vulnerable individuals who “need our support and not our judgment”, Hemsworth told the regional publisher ACM.
He says the thought of women and children fleeing domestic violence should be “enough motivation for real change”.
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“That should ignite in all of us a deep sense of compassion and empathy and need and want to contribute and be involved and help,” he says. “They’re living in cars and various places … still taking kids to school, still trying to seek work or going to work, but living out of the back of a car. And so it’s not just the obvious cases.”
The number of children presenting to homelessness services would fill over 3000 school classrooms, according to a report timed for Homelessness Week led by Homelessness Australia, the national peak body for homelessness, which provides advocacy for the sector.
More than 76,000 children under the age of 18 sought help from homelessness services in 2022-23.
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In NSW and Victoria, more than 10,000 children unaccompanied by parents or caregivers sought help from homelessness services amid Australia’s burgeoning wait lists for social housing, the lack of adequate crisis accommodation and chronic underfunding of homelessness support services.
These children may be couch surfing, or in temporary crisis accommodation, perhaps sleeping in cars or at worst on the street. Analysis of the data suggests Melbourne has the worst numbers, followed by Sydney and then the rest of NSW.
The new Minister for Housing and Homelessness Clare O’Neil officially launched Homelessness Week 2024 in her first public event in her new role. She met with the Lighthouse Foundation who support young people experiencing homelessness.
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“Anyone can face homelessness, and it can happen too easily,” O’Neil says. “But tackling it takes collaboration, hard work, and the right support at the right time.”
Originally published as Chris Hemsworth says Aussies should be doing more