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Conclusion

Homeless people in NSW face a variety of legal issues. Legal issues faced by people at the point of entering into homelessness usually differ from the types of issues faced by people who have been homeless for some time. First, as people become homeless they tend to face legal issues which are closely tied to the incidents leading to their homelessness. These include:

• family-law- and domestic-violence-related legal issues reflecting family breakdown and violence
• housing-related legal issues, including housing debt, problems with residential tenancy databases and eviction reflecting the person’s loss of housing
• debt-related legal issues reflecting financial disadvantage
• unlawful discrimination preventing people maintaining financial and accommodation security.

Secondly, homeless people face the following legal issues, arising as a consequence of being homeless:

• problems with complying with social security requirements as a result of being homeless
• vulnerability to crime as a result of a lack of secure housing
• legal issues related to boarding house and caravan park accommodation
• fines and being moved on as a result of homeless people’s greater visibility and occupation of public space
• criminal law problems relating to alcohol and other drug abuse.

Consultations with participants and stakeholders also indicate that homeless people tend to experience multiple legal issues at any one time. When unresolved, these legal issues can lead to and compound homelessness. As will be discussed in Chapter 5, homeless people face a range of barriers in seeking legal assistance for these issues, resulting in many issues remaining unresolved.