The recent ACT government announcement of a taskforce dedicated to addressing the "anti-social challenges" in Dickson is to be welcomed if it results in providing safe and secure housing and wrap-around support for those who need it.

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If, however, the people experiencing homelessness are framed as "the problem", I suspect that "the problem" will actually increase in size and severity, even if the people who are problematised are moved on.

Out of sight, out of mind might look like a reasonable outcome for some who are impacted by the poverty and homelessness of others. Needless to say, it is not.

On census night in 2021 there were more than 122,000 people experiencing homelessness across Australia, with a national homelessness rate of 48 per 10,000 of the population.

Fourteen per cent of people experiencing homelessness were children under 12. Twenty-three per cent (almost one in four) were children and young people between 12 and 24.

Twenty per cent were First Nations people. The Northern Territory had the highest rate of homelessness, with 564 people per 10,000 of the population.

The ACT had a rate of 39 per 10,000 of the population (second-lowest nationally), decreasing from a rate of 49 in 2011 (then second-highest nationally).

As we watch scenes of mass destruction of housing and infrastructure and the military orchestration of mass homelessness overseas, it is salient to remind ourselves that this violent dispossession was also the foundation for our own........

© Canberra Times