IF YOU think that homelessness is just a big city issue – think again.
There are hundreds of homeless people in the central west region, including Coonamble and surrounding towns, and even more who teeter on the brink from month to month.
This week is National Homelessness Week and local service providers say that while there is more help available locally the problem is not getting better.
“It’s bigger than people realise,” says John Lewis, Project Leader for Indigenous Youth Justice who work with young people in Coonamble and Gulargambone. “A lot of kids couch-surf, which is a form of homelessness, but we’ve had a number of clients over time who were completely homeless.”
“We see a lot of short-term homeless kids because of drug and alcohol abuse – but not their own,” he said.
“Home becomes an unsafe environment so they hit the road.”
“I know a lot of people who comment about the kids being out on the streets and in the park late at night,” Mr Lewis said. “But a group of kids together in the park is a safer place for them.”
“We’ve had clients sleeping rough in cardboard boxes under the main bridge in town and the bridge on the Baradine Road,” he said. “One girl hitched to Coonabarabran just to find somewhere to sleep.”
“It’s a lot more common than people think in small communities.”
The Indigenous Youth Justice Program has been in place for four years and while their clients are aged from ten to twenty years old, other services say the issue is just as big among adults.
Tarah Naden is a Support Worker with the Warrumbungles Housing and Homelessness Service for Mission Australia in Coonamble. They work with families, teens, men and women and are the only specialist homelessness service in the district. Their Coonabarabran office supports Baradine.
She says that apart from people that some months they might have five new people register for ongoing support as a result of becoming homeless in Coonamble, as well as people they can assist quickly.
People from all walks of life who are dealing with addictions to alcohol, drugs and gambling or family violence are commonly at risk of homelessness but the fact is that Australians of all ages and backgrounds can become homeless.
“Homeless people often have families and loved ones,” said a Mission Australia representative.
“A lot of the time, homelessness is the result of circumstances out of that person’s or their family’s control.”
Mission Australia staff can put arrangements in place to prevent eviction from private or public housing and also assist people, such as those just out of prison, to apply for housing.
Other organisations who work to keep people in housing are the Aboriginal Tenancy Support & Education Program with Damien Day and Mackillop Rural Community Services with Joanne Ellis, but there is no safe house, refuge or even emergency accommodation currently available within Coonamble.
“If there’s an emergency we can get them into a refuge,” Ms Naden said. “Walgett has both a women’s and a men’s safe house, and we can offer transport. We also contact Link2Home who can offer a few nights in a motel but the closest one is Gilgandra.”
“Every community needs a shelter for both men and women,” Mr Lewis said. “With the levels of domestic violence we have here, it is hard to understand why there’s nothing in place.”
