Bikram Lama\u2019s death could have been invisible.<\/p>\n
It has instead prompted a reckoning.<\/p>\n
Since Monday, when Guardian Australia published an investigation<\/a> into Lama\u2019s life and death, politicians, frontline homelessness workers, advocates and members of the public have been unified in their calls for change.<\/p>\n Lama died sleeping rough in Hyde Park in December last year. His body was found in a clump of bushes near the entrance to St James station tunnel, a busy thoroughfare on the edge of Sydney\u2019s CBD. His death was not detected for up to a week.<\/p>\n Lama came to Australia to study, his family say, but had been deemed a non-resident by Australian authorities. Support workers say the designation effectively trapped him in homelessness.<\/p>\n Bikram Lama\u2019s death has prompted widespread public discussion on homelessness. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n An alliance of 48 councils from across Australia called Back Your Neighbour, chaired by Sophie Tan, the mayor of Greater Dandenong in Victoria, issued a damning statement on Friday, saying Lama\u2019s death was evidence of \u201cthe human cost of policy-driven exclusion\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people are forced to live in prolonged immigration limbo, without a clear pathway to permanency, they are effectively excluded from housing, healthcare, income support and crisis services, regardless of how long they have lived in or contributed to their communities,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe offer Bikram Lama\u2019s family and friends our sincere condolences for their loss. His circumstances are tragically familiar to people living in immigration limbo across Australian Local Government areas.\u201d<\/p>\n