JENI O’DOWD: Homeless crisis doesn’t just reflect a lack of vital services but also who we are as a society

It’s the middle of winter in Sydney. The kind of cold that seeps into your bones, the kind that makes you grateful for heating, a warm bed and your Oodie.

But for many, these are luxuries out of reach. Walk down George Street, one of the city’s busiest strips, and you’ll see them: people in sleeping bags, some shielded by large umbrellas for a semblance of privacy, others exposed to the elements.

Some have dogs curled beside them for warmth and companionship. A few are middle-aged women, vulnerable, alone and invisible.

Many hold up signs asking for spare change, a difficult ask in our increasingly cashless society. I started saving coins to hand out, but with so many people now, I find myself having to ration my donations.

How did we get here? How is it that in 2025, in one of the world’s wealthiest cities, this is our reality?

The recent LA riots imposed a curfew, exempting essential workers like police, ambulance officers, the media and what they described as “unhoused individuals.”

It was a bleak reminder of how society treats homelessness as a category outside the rest of humanity.

And while that moment unfolded overseas, the crisis here is just as confronting. Back in Sydney, the 2025 Street Count recorded 2,192 people sleeping rough across NSW, with inner-city Sydney experiencing a 24 per cent increase in just one year.

Despite government investments, including a $100 million Homelessness Innovation Fund and the ambitious Building Homes for NSW program, which aims to deliver over 30,000 new homes, the crisis persists.

At the Federal level, the government has pledged $9.3 billion to support those at risk and to bolster social housing services.

But the cracks are widening. Nearly 42 per cent of low-income renters are experiencing rental stress, placing them one step away from homelessness.

Meanwhile, more than 50,000 Australians in need of crisis or long-term accommodation were turned away last year, not because they didn’t qualify, but because there was simply no place to accommodate them.

It’s not just about numbers. It’s about people. People failed by rising rents, stagnant wages, untreated mental illness and the near-total collapse of affordable housing.

People are sleeping directly beneath the gleaming windows of luxury boutiques and designer flagships. Louis Vuitton above, sleeping bag below. Some curl up beside the Queen Victoria Building, one of Sydney’s most historical landmarks. The juxtaposition is brutal.

I remember being in New York about 20 years ago, when homelessness was a visible crisis. It was very confronting.

The then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani launched police sweeps to move homeless individuals into shelters, prioritising order over support.

Later, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, programs like Housing Stability Plus and Advantage offered rental subsidies, but when funding dried up, many were back where they started. The problem didn’t vanish. It just moved.

Here in Sydney, we don’t even bother with that illusion. Walk down George Street and the rough sleepers are right there, in plain sight.

Commuters queue for $5 coffees just metres from someone trying to keep warm under a sheet of cardboard. No one moves them on. No one rushes to intervene. It’s simply become part of the city’s morning routine. Flat white in one hand, indifference in the other.

When I’m on the bus heading into the city, almost everyone is glued to their phones, a rare few reading books. Conversation is virtually extinct.

I’m no different, except I’m listening to Eminem, which is at least music about real life, while silently judging the rest of the commuters for pretending none of it exists.

When they step off the bus, the trance continues with eyes on screens, AirPods in and attention anywhere but on the person trying to sleep in four-degree weather.

We’ve created a society so connected, it can’t see what’s right in front of it.

The government’s efforts feel like band-aids on a gaping wound. The NSW Homelessness Strategy 2025–2035 promises to make homelessness “rare, brief and not repeated,” but without immediate, large-scale action, these goals remain lofty slogans.

This crisis isn’t just about housing. It’s about dignity, about compassion and about the kind of society we claim to be.

Governments must stop tinkering at the edges and start addressing root causes: more affordable housing and real mental health support.

The people sleeping on George Street aren’t just statistics. They’re citizens. And they deserve more than our silence.