Acting on homelessness
Like many people I often take councils to task for bad decisions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
However I would like to thank and congratulate all councillors particularly Kristy McBain for not only putting youth homelessness on the agenda but actually deciding to do something about it.
Before moving here five years ago I worked for 40 years in Sydney CBD, the capital of homelessness. One lady used to sleep standing up during the day with her little trolley on Town Hall Station.
I could never say no to anyone who was suffering. Cost me a lot of money but I slept well every night. Another time I was required to work on a Sunday so I pulled my motorbike up on the footpath. Blocking me was a very large cardboard box so I tried to kick it out of the way and there was a loud scream. There was an old lady sleeping in the box.
I thought when I moved here I would never see that side of life again. However homelessness particularly for youth is worse here because there are little if any options. I know one young man down here who spent Valentines night with his girlfriend sleeping under cardboard in a park.
We are all charged with the care of children not just their families who in a lot of cases are dysfunctional. All these young homeless people are looking for a hand up not a hand out. Ask yourself what you would do if these were members of your family. Then do something don’t just talk about it.
As a community we need to get together and come up with solutions before we lose a generation of children
Frank Pearce, Bega
Call to swell the numbers
The amendments Sports Aviation Flight College Australia (SAFCA) recently submitted, in response to contentious aspects of their initial proposed industrial flight school DA for Frogs Hollow, may seem or promise to come closer to meeting "government guidelines".
But what allowances do these guidelines make for a community's achievements, values, current assets and the direction that has been agreed and set by that community? Do these count for nothing against a few proponents? How can filling evermore airspace, with polluting excess aircraft, be helpful in mitigating the effects of climate change?
SAFCA have said they want to expand into multiple districts, so if this school is so imperative, let them find more geographically suitable sites, with populations and tourist industries that are used to, and expect, heavier air traffic.
The Bega Valley’s burgeoning tourism industry expects peace and tranquility within this beautiful, productive district, from Mallacoota to Eden, Adaminaby, Cooma to Moruya. Try fishing under a regular student’s camera-laden flight path! This is not just NIMBYism talking, this is recognising fast diminishing tranquil, clean private spaces, where folk can escape noisy, aggravating, private-less environments.
The future comfort of this beautiful Valley is now in the hands of the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel. Every concerned person must swell the numbers of submissions to the SJRPP to convince them of this Valley’s merits, assets and value as a comparatively peaceful and cheerful, agricultural precinct, by August 1. Go for it!
Michaela Samman, Bemboka
Free land
So, the NSW government has announced its Build and Rent program, with the government providing free land which is exempt from land tax to developers for the construction of rental accommodation, 30 per cent of which is earmarked for social and affordable housing.
When will the locations that the government is providing within the Bega shire be announced?
There are people down here right now, desperately hoping it will be very soon.
Peter Lacey, Quaama