Life on Moore Street

This service was recorded on Sunday, 8th September, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide and conducted by the Rev. Rob MacPherson - with guest speaker, Brother Martyn Paxton, of Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral, Adelaide - and the Moore Street Mission. Our church supports The Moore Street Mission via our a weekly food basket. Brother Martyn spoke on homelessness. He described how a capitalist-centred political ethos has led to increasing disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor and the privatisation of public housing. This has led to sharp increases in the cost of rental accommodation and the demise of public housing - traditionally provided by the States, resulting in the current crisis of homelessness amongst the poor.
It is common practice for many Australians to blame the poor for their homelessness. Brother Martyn dispels some commonly held myths about why people become homeless and argues that the real barrier to providing safe accommodation for all is the abrogation of responsibility by successive State and Federal governments for the current and growing crisis caused by the shortage of affordable accommodation.