Homelessness doesn’t always happen on the street.
There are over 120,000 Australians experiencing homelessness on any given night.
Homelessness isnt always visible.
The people behind it deserve to be seen.
Homelessness Awareness Week 3rd - 9th August 2026
Children living in low socioeconomic areas are
12 times as likely to be living with overcrowding.
When most Australians think about homelessness, they picture someone sleeping rough.
But across South West Sydney, homelessness often takes a different form.
Families live in overcrowded homes because they cannot afford rent. Young people move between friends’ couches. Women escaping violence stay temporarily with relatives. Newly arrived migrants share homes well beyond safe occupancy because there are few affordable alternatives.
These experiences are known as hidden homelessness. They are less visible, but the impacts are profound—affecting health, education, employment, wellbeing and family relationships.
Everyone deserves more than a roof. Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to call home.
SeeMe.
The following stories are based on the experiences of people and families supported by CORE Community Services.
Names and identifying details have been changed to protect their privacy.
Overcrowding impacts every part of life.
Children struggle to sleep.
Parents experience ongoing stress.
Young people lose stability.
Mental health declines.
Education suffers.
Family relationships become strained.
Housing is more than shelter.
It’s the foundation for health, education, safety and belonging.
Across South West Sydney, rising rents, cost-of-living pressures and limited affordable housing are forcing more families into unsafe and overcrowded living conditions.
For many multicultural families, seeking help can also be complicated by language barriers, visa uncertainty, financial hardship or fear of stigma.
Hidden homelessness is growing.
But so is our community’s determination to respond.
If you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, we’re here to help.
CORE Community Services
Understand what hidden homelessness looks like.
Help more people recognise that homelessness doesn’t always happen on the street.
Share the campaign using #SeeMe2026
Someone will sleep on a lounge room floor.
Someone will sleep in a hallway.
Someone will move to another couch.
Someone will wonder where they’ll sleep next week.
You may never see them.
But they’re there.
When Olena* arrived in Australia with her children after fleeing the war in Ukraine, she believed the hardest part was behind her.
Relatives welcomed them into their home while she searched for work and somewhere permanent to live.
She applied for countless jobs.
Without Australian work experience, each application ended the same way.
Temporary accommodation slowly became long-term.
Months passed.
Every day she worries about overstaying her welcome, even though her family tells her she isn’t.
Her children ask when they’ll have a place of their own.
She tells them, “Soon.”
She hopes she’s right.
For many people rebuilding their lives, safety comes first. Stability takes much longer.
When Joseph* and his family first found somewhere to rent, they were relieved.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was somewhere to start.
As the cost of living continued to rise, so did the rent. Eventually, they could no longer afford a home of their own.
Today, they rent a single bedroom in a three-bedroom house shared with two other families.
What was designed for one family now accommodates many.
Their children eat, sleep and do their homework in the same small room. There is nowhere to play, nowhere to study, and nowhere to simply be children.
Privacy doesn’t exist.
Everyday routines are built around waiting for a turn to use the kitchen or bathroom.
From the outside, it looks like an ordinary suburban home.
Inside, every square metre is shared.
“We’re grateful to have somewhere to stay,” Joseph says. “But this isn’t the life we imagined for our children.”
For many families across South West Sydney, hidden homelessness doesn’t mean sleeping on the street. It means living in overcrowded housing because there is simply nowhere else they can afford to go.
A roof provides shelter. A home provides safety, stability and the space to live with dignity.
At 28, Lina* was proud of the life she’d built. She worked full-time.
Paid her rent. Lived independently.
Then the cost of living caught up with her.
As rent continued to rise, renewing her lease was no longer possible.
Moving back in with her parents was the only option.
But there wasn’t enough room inside the house.
Together, they transformed the family garage into a makeshift bedroom.
There is a bed.
A wardrobe.
A few personal belongings.
It keeps her safe and she’s grateful her parents could help.
But every morning she packs everything away before friends visit.
She doesn’t invite people over anymore.
She’s embarrassed to explain where she sleeps.
Hidden homelessness doesn’t always look like sleeping rough. Sometimes it looks like turning a garage into the only bedroom left.
Sarah* never imagined that leaving home would be harder than staying.
She lives with her parents and siblings in an overcrowded home because it’s the only place she and her young son can afford.
But behind closed doors, the home isn’t safe.
Family violence has become part of daily life. She knows it’s not the environment she wants her son to grow up in, and every day she dreams of giving him a home where they can both feel secure.
She has looked at private rentals, but the cost is far beyond what she can afford.
The only alternative offered is temporary emergency accommodation—short-term, uncertain, and unable to provide the stability her son needs.
So she stays.
Not because it’s safe.
Not because she wants to.
Because she feels she has no other choice.
For many women and children, homelessness isn’t always about sleeping on the street. Sometimes it’s remaining in an unsafe home because every other option feels just as uncertain.
No one should have to choose between violence and homelessness.
