Felicity Reynolds began by outlining the three current key arguments for ending homelessness - cost, ethical, and results.

When Michael Coffey set off on a study tour of six countries in 26 days, the big question he had was does youth homelessness matter in other countries has much as it doesn’t in Australia?

Listen to Michael's presentation via the link below, and view his powerpoint presentation from the conference. 

Stephanie Brennan, convenor of the Nepean Campaign Against Homelessness described the origin, goals and current and planned activities of the Campaign.

Listen to the presentation from the Nepean Campaign Against Homelessness and view the powerpoint presentations via the links below.

Simon Smith, Executive Officer, Homelessness Australia, focused his presentation on what Homelessness Australia is doing around supporting the implementation of the White Paper.

He began by saying that while the White Paper has set ambitious targets there is a national strategy and a funding commitment to 2013.

At the same time there are also major challenges. The governance model for the implementation is weak and it's hard to get a picture across different states of what the work on the ground is going to be, NSW being at this time the only State to have released the full Action Plan.

Along the shores of the Nepean River banks, under the Victoria Bridge of the M4, or in Jamison Park, Tench Reserve and Werrington Lakes, are just the few places where on any given night you will find homeless people, particular young homeless people sleeping rough in the Nepean.

Despite the variance in ages and cultural backgrounds, a number of common things can easily be identified: chronically homeless with repeat use of crisis services, experiences of drug and alcohol, mental health issues and challenging behaviours.