AN ALTONA business owner roughing it for Vinnies CEO Sleepout says many young people end up homeless after coming out as gay or lesbian.
While his large Catholic family was “incredibly supportive,” Pete Dillon said not all families were as accepting.
Mr Dillon, who runs a media and communications agency and has two shows on Joy radio, is helping challenge the stereotype of the typical homeless person.
“One in four young people who are homeless identify as GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender] and that’s a result of family structures at home, how people react to young people coming out,” he said.
“In this day and age, where we think we’re a little more enlightened, sadly it still happens. It happens frequently.
“People have a thing in their mind that people are homeless because of choice, that they’ve made choices around drugs or alcohol, they’ve made choices that they’ll just give up, whereas in so many cases that’s just not the case.
“If I was to look at my Facebook page and go through the amount of people there, 75percent of them are probably two pay cheques away from being homeless.”
Women were also vulnerable to becoming homeless. “More than 50percent of homeless people are women who are financially disadvantaged or escaping violence; physical, sexual, emotional violence.”
On June 21, Mr Dillon will sleep outdoors at Etihad Stadium to raise money and awareness of the plight of more than 100,000 homeless Australians.
To help him achieve his fund-raising target of $3000, visit the site ceosleepout.org.au/ceos/vic-ceos/profile/?ceo=1538 -Goya Dmytryshchak
