Letters to the Editor
9 August, 2026
Letter to the Editor: Homelessness Week 2026: Choosing Love
It is Homelessness Week 2026: 3–9 August. In the depths of winter, when the need is greatest, the week exists to highlight homelessness and the ways to help — giving time, giving money to a charity doing good work, or simply stopping to talk to someone the world usually walks past.
It is Homelessness Week 2026: 3–9 August. In the depths of winter, when the need is greatest, the week exists to highlight homelessness and the ways to help — giving time, giving money to a charity doing good work, or simply stopping to talk to someone the world usually walks past.
Nearly 123,000 Australians experience homelessness on any given night — spanning rough sleeping, couch surfing, cars, and temporary or unsuitable shelters.
Let’s reduce stigma, support local services, and, where we can, push for the systemic policy change needed to increase social housing investment and government support.
Bondi, and What the Soup Kitchen Taught Me
I grew up in Bondi through the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Homelessness, mental illness and addiction were, sadly, part of the landscape. I watched childhood friends face these battles. Some died. Others never fully recovered. It broke my heart and taught me early that no one is immune to hardship.
In my early twenties, I was touched by the kindness of Chapel by the Sea’s soup kitchen at Bondi Beach. Its people received more than nutritious food and practical care.
That kind of hardship isolates people completely. Loss of community and belonging is a starvation of love, which silently breaks people from the inside. This Bondi soup kitchen didn’t just feed bodies; it fed the souls of the people gathering there each day, offering community, acceptance, empathy, and dignity restored.
I loved bringing food and honest connection to the people at the soup kitchen in the early 90s. It left a lasting impression — a commitment to give what I can and always support the everyday angels doing this awesome work: Wayside Chapel, Vinnies, the Salvos, and others — so they can keep serving and caring for our shared human family.
On Dignity
Eleanor Roosevelt once said human rights begin “in small places, close to home.” The street corner. The soup kitchen. The park bench where someone sleeps tonight. If dignity means nothing there, it means nothing anywhere.
In 1948, with the world still raw from the Second World War, the United Nations — with Roosevelt chairing the drafting commission — adopted Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” This line became the cornerstone of modern human rights: every person holds intrinsic, unearned worth simply by being human — worth no government grants, and none can strip away.
History is often marked by injustice, conflict, and sorrow, which makes moments like this — when humanity has consciously chosen dignity — rare beacons in its darker chapters, and among the best of what we are capable of.
The True Meaning Behind This Love
Love can be a confusing word. The love these charities practice has a name the ancient Greeks understood precisely: agape (ἀγάπη) — unconditional, selfless love. Of the eight forms of love the Greeks identified, agape stands apart from eros (romantic love), philia(friendship) and storge (family love). It is a love of will and choice, not of feeling.
The Apostle Paul used the word. Writing to the Corinthians around AD 55, he described agape as patient and kind, enduring every trial, and concluded: “Love never fails.” This is what connects agape to “Love Over Hate”: love chosen, not love that waits for someone to deserve it.
The lesson needs to be retaught. The Greeks recognised it centuries before the Apostle Paul wrote of it, and nearly nineteen centuries later the United Nations enshrined its spirit as Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Across the annals of time, this truth has not changed — only our need to be reminded of it. We, as people, seem to forget that people need love, respect, and care. So, the lesson has needed to be retold, again and again.
The second sentence of Article 1, often overlooked, is just as important:
“…They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
That “spirit of brotherhood” — the spirit of love and kindness — is agape.
You hear this same truth in different words across the sector — Wayside’s “Love Over Hate,” the Homelessness Australia promise of “No One Turned Away,” the vision of national campaign “Everybody’s Home,” the Salvos’ commitment to “doing the most good.” Different names, same ethos: the agape of the ancient Greeks, and Paul describes in Corinthians, the mercy the Samaritan shows a stranger in the Parable, and the dignity and equality Article 1 recognised as every person’s self-evident, innate right.
Its authors, still carrying the wounds of the Holocaust and the Second World War, understood exactly what happens when hatred is weaponised — when states are allowed to systematically dehumanise and murder millions. Article 1 was built to anchor the twenty-nine articles that follow in one simple truth: human dignity is inherent, never earned. If we can embrace and enshrine this, we have a chance to truly live their pledge of “never again.”
Choosing dignity in society — ensuring food, shelter and safety for the homeless or displaced — is an act of political, societal and cultural healing. It breaks cycles of hatred by refusing to let indifference win.
This week, remember those most marginalised in our community. Like the parable of the Good Samaritan, if a fellow human falls on life’s journey, do not walk past — lend a hand, and help lift your neighbour up again, and choose agape Love.
- By Mon McKellar Stewart
Ways to help
Wayside Chapel — Donate here waysidechapel.org.au
You can also join waysides annual Long Walk Home charity fundraiser in October: https://www.longwalkhome.com.au
The Salvation Army — hosting events for Homelessness Week 2026. salvationarmy.org.au
St Vincent de Paul Society offering emergency welfare assistance for community members in need.
Vinnies Conference / Assist Contact:
22 Bowral Road, Mittagong NSW 2575. (02) 4871 1922
Or 02A Argyle Street, Moss Vale NSW 2577. (02) 4868 1775
Food pantries + soup kitchen in the Southern Highlands:
• Moss Vale C3 Cares Soup Kitchen — hot meals every Friday from 8:30pm, near the clock tower bus stop, Argyle Street, Moss Vale
• Bowral Uniting Church Pantry & Lunch — free food pantry and community lunch, corner of Bendooley and Boolwey Streets, Bowral
• C3 Cares Bowral — free fresh produce, bread and non-perishables, Tuesday–Friday 10am–2pm, Shop 1, 347 Bong Bong Street, Bowral
• Food Aid Southern Highlands — emergency food hampers via foodaid.org.au, based at Connect Church, Spring St & Railway St, Moss Vale
• OzHarvest Southern Highlands — rescues and redistributes food to local charities and churches (details here)
If you or someone you know needs help:
• Southern Highlands Homeless Service — case management and crisis support, Shop 5/24 Bowral Road, Mittagong. Phone: 02 4872 1105
• St Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) — local emergency assistance and financial aid (vinnies.org.au/nsw)
• Link2Home — statewide 24/7 emergency accommodation and homelessness helpline: 1800 152 152
--------------
Subscribe to The Southern Wire Newsletter for free at the link below.
https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/1986abc6-c89e-4781-9db2-cf35c9dd71e4
If you value independent local journalism across the Highlands, Tablelands and Wollondilly, please click the link below to support us to ensure we remain paywall free.
Read More: Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, Wollondilly