By Luke Voogt
The Salvation Army is struggling to house Geelong’s homeless amid a spike in referrals, a local advocate has said.
The charity was receiving four or five new referrals daily, said male homeless networker John Hutchinson.
“When I go out on an outreach night I’ll meet two or three people I haven’t seen before. I don’t think people realise the extent of the rough sleeping problem in Geelong.”
The Salvos had turned to caravan parks, hotels and vacant rooms for emergency accommodation after its refuges reached capacity, Mr Hutchinson said.
The charity was turning single women away from its 14-room refuge to make room for families, some fleeing domestic violence, he said.
Mr Hutchinson cited a five-year-old boy who told him he felt safe “for the first time in his life” as the refuge gates closed behind him.
“If we’ve got a woman with children we have to give them first priority. There’s just not enough for single (homeless) women in Geelong.”
One of the single women, Sandra Price, said she had been sleeping in coaches boxes and grandstands around Geelong.
The sites were “far from safe” but local football ovals were quieter and away from abusive “drunken idiots” in the city at night, she said.
She was lucky to get “three hours sleep a night”.
“I’m terrified at the moment.”
Ms Price said she was fighting a drug addiction on the streets but had remained sober most of the past two years.
“Every now and then I fall off again because there’s no help and no one to talk to.”
Mr Hutchinson said drug-use plagued some accommodation sites, with dealers targeting the homeless and vulnerable.
Some homeless people fighting addiction would rather save money and live on the street than face the temptation to relapse, he said.
“When you put them together without any support what help have they got?”
But the Salvos had a plan to help, Mr Hutchinson said.
He was living with people in emergency accommodation, making improvements to their rooms after hours.
The idea was not to “spy” on them but to hear their stories and help them find support, he said.
“I’m making some real inroads. We want to use it as a pilot model that we can use at other places.”
The Salvos’ other plan was to create a local shelter which would provide a range of homeless services in one place, Mr Hutchinson said.
“To get holistic support they have go to 10 different sites around the city. We pretty close to nailing a community space where we can deal with all the problems together.”
SalvoConnect Barwon network director Lorrinda Hamilton called Mr Hutchinson’s commitment incredible.
She warned that the closure of local industries like Ford could send former workers who might have never accessed Centrelink into poverty.
Redundancy payments could quickly disappear when workers were used to regular wages, Ms Hamilton said.
“They can get lost really quickly with the system.”
Geelong Salvos will host a Walking Home event to raise awareness for the homeless on 5 November. More information is at salvationarmy.org.au/walkinghome.
