Despair: Edwin Singer contemplates another day of trying to make ends meet while living below the poverty line. Picture: Tommy Ritchie 55342
Andrew Mathieson
RISING living costs are forcing more Geelong residents into poverty despite a booming national economy, according to Barwon Community Legal Service.
Manager Nick Hudson said rising debts were also forcing some homeless clients to sleep on spare couches or live in cars as they struggled to keep up with a “rental crisis” in affordable accommodation.
The service had calculated more than 20,000 people in the region, or about one in 10, were living below the poverty line.
Mr Hudson said the worst impact was on accommodation.
“The biggest challenge facing the people of Geelong is availability of affordable housing because there is very limited stock of public housing. A lot of them end up with friends and relatives when they can and are just making do,” he said.
Mr Hudson said legal service clients usually found the private rental market too expensive.
Debt-chasing companies were “creating the most grief” for Geelong people struggling on welfare benefits, he said.
“That might be their mobile phone provider because they’re the most aggressive about pursuing a bill or it might be the credit card provider who they’re paying back rather than paying their rent or their electricity, which should be a higher priority.”
Mr Hudson said soaring power costs associated with new smart meters were providing “no benefit for impoverished consumers”.
Community and education development worker Jillian Chapman said her increasingly impoverished clients were becoming socially isolated.
“Poverty is much more than struggling to keep the roof over your head and food on the table,” she said.
“Poverty is also living without access to information, opportunities and social interaction.”
Former social worker Edwin Singer told the Independent since becoming unemployed he was battling with all the traits of “living below the poverty line”.
The 54-year-old said he was sometimes forced to roll up cigarette butts in lolly papers to support his smoking habit or abandon meat-based dinners for omelettes to make ends meet.
Mr Singer battled to find $20 a week to keep his power on.
Mr Singer, a sole parent of a 12-year-old, said he visited The Salvation Army for food vouchers to put hot meals on the table.
“We had our first steak for three months the other night – I just can’t afford to buy those expensive cuts of meat any more.”
Mr Singer said he was struggling to pay for his daughter’s education with $50 fortnightly fees, $150 for enrolment and $700 for her books.
“As soon as I get any money it just goes. I’m so fed up with this,” he said.
