Published Tuesday, September 23, 2008
By Jessica Cumming
HOMELESSNESS is well hidden in the ACT. According to those who work with people living on the streets.
“I was appalled at the figures that affluent Canberrans hide so cleverly,” said founder and director of the The Bridge Back To Life Foundation Rhonda Obad.
Ms Obad officially opened a shelter for homeless men, in Latham last week, which she said was already 75 per cent full.
The shelter is names after Ms Obad’s son, Tony, who tragically died after a heroin overdose in 1998.
Ms Obad said she wanted the house to be a home for the young men staying there.
“I said to these boys, of all the refuges you have lived in, it’s a home.”
“One has been homeless since he was 14, he has lived in 37 refuges, his mother left him when he was one year old,” she said.
Ms Obad said Canberrans needed to acknowledge the problem.
“We need to give these people a hand up, not a hand out, and they need to be included in this community and not marginalized because they wear their hair differently or their hat backwards - they still have a heart beating inside their chest.
“As human beings, we owe it to do all we can to help these people.”
The house will eventually accommodate six men at a time and Ms Obad said the majority currently staying at the home were aged between 18 and 22.
Official figures from the Support Accommodation Assistance Program showed 1900 people in the ACT receive accommodation assistance, however Ms Obad estimates the number is much higher than officially recorded.
“What the government fails to tell the community is about the 36 to 66 per cent, depending on where people are, trying to enter into (accommodation) who are turned out,” she said.
Ms Obad estimated there were 10,000 homeless people in Canberra. Ms Obad said the ACT was dealing with a new typwe of homelessness because of increasing mortgage stress.
“Homelessness doesn’t happen just because someone is affected by drugs or alcohol. No one is immune, it can happen to you overnight. For example, through domestic violence.”
Outreach operations manager at the ACT division of Open Family Peter Schwarz said Canberra’s layout and cold climate forces many homeless people into unsafe conditions and makes them especially vulnerable.
“It’s just too cold to sleep out in the streets in Canberra,” he said.
“Everyone pays for their accommodation for the night.”
Coordinator at the Canberra Youth Refuge Kim Hopper said there was a high need in the ACTG for crisis beds.
“At the moment we’re seeing a lot of mental health stuff, people with disabilities as well,” she said.
“There’s absolutely a need for more supported accommodation, also a diversity of options.”
“Us and Tony’s place are the only youth refuges on the north side.”
Tony’s place has been fully funded through community support and is in need of ongoing support to continue funding the house.
Ms Obad said she approached the ACT Government in March for funding, however she said she has not heard anything further.
“I’m not a wealthy women, I put in how much I can put in,” she said
“I desperately would appreciate some funding.”
