Authors
Reece Welsh
Publication date
2020/11
Journal
Parity
Volume
33
Issue
10
Pages
56-57
Description
It is May 2020, and Hamza* is sleeping in a discreet alleyway in Melbourne's Central Business District, a place he has returned to frequently since becoming homeless a month ago. Hamza has felt the impact of Covid-19: the shutdown of workplaces and exclusion of people seeking asylum from JobKeeper resulted in his casual employment at a warehouse being terminated and, additionally excluded from JobSeeker and unable to pay his rent, he was told to leave the share house in which he lived. After a couple of weeks of couch surfing, Hamza was left without options for basic shelter and wandering the Central Business District looking for a place to sleep. Hamza is now facing homelessness into the upcoming extended period of Melbourne's second wave of Covid-19, and its resultant lockdowns, with few options available to him.