
The Chasm Between Rich and Poor: Homeless in the Wealthy West
Homelessness in Australia is climbing fastest among women, many of them middle-aged and previously stable, and this film follows several of them through the daily logistics of living without an address. Some sleep in cars or camper vans parked overnight in quiet streets, others rotate between friends' couches or short-term shelters, piecing together showers, mail, and job applications around a routine most housed people never think about. The film links their situations to a wider trend across wealthy nations, where widening income gaps and precarious jobs are pushing the middle class, not just the chronically poor, toward the same cliff edge. Migrants and Indigenous Australians appear as communities hit especially hard. Interviews with the women themselves carry the film, and what comes through is not despair but a kind of stubborn humor and resourcefulness, even as they describe the fear of the next unpaid bill or expired lease. It is a portrait of instability inside a rich country, told through the people absorbing it.