  NEW BOOK: "FINDING SHELTER"
THE STORY OF AUSTRALIA'S POOREST PEOPLE
(June 2009) The Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project has launched a new book that captures: the stories of people seeking asylum in Australia in their own words; the issues and policies that defined ten years in Australian history; and the remarkable work of the Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project.
ORDER NOW! CALL 03 9326 8343. ONLY $20 (plus postage)
All proceeds will provide direct help for asylum seekers struggling to survive in the community.
Finding Shelter is also available at:
ASP, 2/579 Queensberry St, North Melbourne;
Unichurch Books, 130 Little Collins St, Melbourne;
Readings, 309 Lygon St, Carlton.
This timely book tells the story of thousands of children, women and men - who for a period of ten years were Australia's poorest people!. From 1997 to 2009, Government policies created a tragically unique class of people in Australia - asylum seekers in the community who had no right to work, no Medicare, no access to benefits, and little access to help from the welfare charities. No other group has been so barred from income and so dependent on charity to survive in Australia.
READ EXCERPTS FROM FINDING SHELTER
Finding Shelter was officially launched on Friday June 12 by the Human Rights Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes.
"The story of the Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project.. parallels some of the harshest years in immigration policy in Australia....Over these years, the Asylum Seeker project was one of the few organisations who recognised the extreme vulnerability of many asylum seekers in the community, those without work rights accommodation and healthcare, often reduced to poverty and destitution while awaiting the outcome of protection claims." Graeme Innes, Human Rights Disability Discrimination Commissioner.
(ASP thanks the Planet Wheeler Foundation and Red Fish Blue Fish (Creative) for their generous support for this publication!)
HOW THE HOTHAM MISSION ASYLUM SEEKER PROJECT WORKSHotham Mission ASP works with the most vulnerable asylum seekers - children, women and men who have no other income and would be homeless. Many have suffered physical or emotional trauma, isolation and mental illness. Some have endured periods of detention.
Hotham Mission ASP provides:
- professional casework support
- housing
- a basic living allowance (BLA)
- help with utilities and emergencies
- a volunteer program of one-to-one support (LinkUP)
- men's and women's support groups
- State and national policy advocacy
- research towards a better reception framework for the future
April to September, Hotham Mission ASP:
- Provided casework support and essential services for 162 people from 15 countries, including 74 children
- Housed, or helped to house 112 people, who would have been homeless
- Provided a Basic Living Allowance for 84 people who would have been destitute.
Hotham Mission ASP's supporting churches, donors and volunteers provided:
- 26 houses; and
- 25 LinkUp partnerships
Hotham Mission ASP operates at very low cost, thanks to in-kind support from UCA Hotham Mission, UCA Share, UCA Funds, Our Community, and housing donors. Hotham Mission ASP provides about $2 million in services to asylum seekers annually at an overhead cost of less than $200,000. Almost all income is from public donations and philanthropic grants. Hotham Mission ASP does not employ commission fundraisers.
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