The man without a home
By Photojournalist Jane CowanÂ
ABC News
27 Oct 2016
Matte Dunn is not drug addicted, not an alcoholic, not a gambler and has no diagnosed mental illness, but he is homeless. This is 12 hours in his life.
According to City of Melbourne figures, numbers of people sleeping rough in Melbourne have gone up 74 per cent in the past two years.
Anecdotal evidence from the sector suggests the homeless demographic is changing: increasingly drugs and mental illness are not the sole drivers. Instead, the sheer unaffordability of housing is pushing people onto the street.
Homeless most of his life, Matte Dunn has been offered crisis and transitional housing multiple times, but has always turned it down. He feels he’s safer on his own than sharing with others who he fears may be using drugs or are potentially violent.
