Statement from NCOSS: Vale Amir Bodenstein, NCOSS Lived Experience Advocate

This week, the staff at NCOSS have been advised about the incredibly sad passing of our first Lived Experience Advocate, Amir Bodenstein.

Amir played a critical role with NCOSS in recent years. He helped shape our approach to working with people with lived experience, and was a founding member of our Lived Experience Advocacy Panel.

Amir put a face to the truly awful homelessness statistics in NSW. He always spoke his mind and had high expectations of the work we do at NCOSS.

Amir’s contributions made our advocacy work more effective, bringing his sense of social justice, humility, and a desire to draw on all his experience and resources to improve the lives of others.

His passing is a stark reminder of why NCOSS exists – to eradicate poverty in NSW.

Amir played a key role in sharing the experience of those sleeping rough, helping NCOSS to advocate for meaningful policy and funding reform in NSW.

According to Homelessness NSW there were 35,011 people experiencing homelessness in NSW at the last census.

Each one of those people isn’t just a statistic. They are a person with a story who needs help, and the NSW Government needs to do more.

NCOSS staff and the other members of the Lived Experience Advocacy panel will be offered professional support. We extend our deepest condolences to Amir’s friends and family, and all who worked with him in the sector.

We encourage governments to do all that they can to eradicate homelessness and to every member of our community who can to consider donating this Homelessness Week to their local homeless shelter or charity.