Taking action on poverty in the Inner West
Thursday, 12 December 2019
Inner West Council will lead a new grassroots initiative to assess the impact of poverty on local communities across NSW.
Council will work with local organisations, such as the Exodus Foundation, Summer Hill Community Centre, Rozelle Neighbourhood Centre, Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, the Gift of Bread and Addison Road Community Centre, to identify how many Inner West people are living in poverty and develop local solutions with State and Federal government help.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne, who proposed the new campaign, will also be writing to Mayors across the state seeking to mobilise them to undertake the same audit in their own communities.
“After 28 years of uninterrupted economic growth in our nation, the poverty rate has remained stubbornly high and economic inequality has increased,” said Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne.
“Australia is among the wealthiest nations on earth and yet one in five children and one in seven adults are still living in poverty.
“While gentrification has resulted in the Inner West becoming much more affluent, we all know that there is still a very significant proportion of our community living in poverty,” Mayor Byrne said.
“And while poverty is a national challenge, the human impacts are felt in our local communities.
“The local kids going to school hungry and the neighbours down the street who are being priced out by rent increases are the local faces of poverty,” he said.
Mayor Byrne will also reach out to Councils across NSW to gauge their interest in collaborating with Inner West Council to better understand the local impacts of poverty.
“Poverty is an issue that affects local communities across Australia. It is important for an inner-city community like ours to recognise our relative privilege in comparison to rural communities in particular, who by many measures are the most disadvantaged of all.
“A majority of Australians want to do something about this, and we know that specific policy measures can address the causes of poverty. We want find new local solutions to disadvantage.”
Council has resolved to:
• Work with local organisations and peak non-government bodies to audit key indicators of poverty in the Inner West, including rates of unemployment and underemployment, hunger, rental stress, homelessness and rough sleeping as well as disability, physical and mental ill-health.
• Seek cooperation from State and Federal governments to implement local solutions to any identified issues.
• Write to Councils across NSW to gauge interest in undertaking their own audits and collaborate with Inner West Council to better understand local impacts of poverty.
• Work with stakeholders, develop a tool kit to allow local communities to identify and find a solution to poverty in their area.
For media enquiries, contact Elizabeth Heath | Media and Communications Coordinator P: +61 2 9392 5334 | E: Elizabeth.Heath@innerwest.nsw.gov.au