By Parker McKenzie
In an effort to raise funds and awareness for those doing it tough throughout Australia, a Yarra Ranges Healthcare Service’s CEO will be one of many taking part in Vinnies CEO Sleepout on Thursday 22 June.
Inspiro Health CEO Sue Sestan said taking part in the annual event “is no way at all a representation of what it’s like to be homeless.”
“It’s to raise that awareness that homelessness can happen to anybody. It strikes people of all social standing and then has very complicated results for us as a society,” she said.
“We consider ourselves a wealthy country but that divide between those that don’t have and those that do is getting bigger.”
Funds raised through the Sleep Out go towards accommodation for people experiencing homelessness, food items through support centres, individual support programs and emergency assistance and home visits.
Ms Sestan said 2023 will be her fourth time taking part in the annual fundraiser.
“It became pretty evident to us there was a group of homeless people that were sleeping rough in MelbaPark, so a number of us were helping out by just giving them packages of things to help support them during that time because it was cold,” she said.
“I’m very privileged and therefore we sometimes don’t necessarily understand the empathy that it takes.”
She said not-for-profits that provide emergency relief are quoting a 30 per cent rise in people needing assistance because of the rising cost of living.
“We can’t just have this complacent mindset around, oh, somebody else will look after it, because they won’t,” she said.
“As a society, we’ve been really negligent to think about social housing as an absolute requirement of what everybody deserves. Everybody deserves a safe place to live, education and employment.
If those three things are not met, then we’re letting our communities down, and housing is probably at the top of that hierarchy.”
More than 120,000 people in Australia do not have access to a safe and secure place to live.
Ms Sestan said there has also been a rise in older women facing homelessness.
“There is a rise of women in their 50s experiencing homelessness purely because they find themselves dependent on their partners and after marriage or relationship breakdowns,” she said.
“They’re finding themselves with little superannuation to fall back on, perhaps no job, because they’ve been caring for a family most of that time.”
Inspiro is a Yarra Ranges-founded not-for-profit, offering a range of healthcare services like physiotherapy, podiatry, dental, and NDIS to sexual health.
People can contribute to Ms Sestan’s CEO Sleepout at ceosleepout.org.au/fundraisers/suesestan/victoria
