Jon Swain is a Homelessness Manager at the City of Sydney.

Increased temperatures and rising rates of primary homelessness in Australia are compounding to create an imminent crisis. Jon has seen firsthand the growing risks that extreme heat and other weather events place on people experiencing primary homelessness, along with the need to develop responses that prevent injury, hospitalisation or death.

Jon believes that our primary responsibility is to ensure that responses to extreme climate events are delivered to people sleeping rough in a timely and targeted way, and that they are designed in partnership with those experiencing homelessness.

With over seventeen years of experience across State, Local and Non-Government homelessness services, Jon is driven by a commitment to explore all possible strategies and initiatives to reduce heat risks for highly vulnerable populations. He has contributed to research and policy design focused on reducing heat-related harm for people experiencing homelessness, regularly presents at conferences on climate and homelessness, and has developed policy and protocol responses to support people sleeping rough during heat events.

In 2024 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate strategies to support people experiencing homelessness during extreme heat events. His 2025 Churchill report ‘The Heat will get here before the housing: solutions from America, lessons for Australia’ highlighted innovative solutions being implemented in the United States to mitigate climate related deaths among people experiencing homelessness.