Bridge Back to Life Foundation

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.”

Bridge Back To Life Foundation opens on 3 September 2008 a “One Stop” outreach transitional support service up to 3-6 months for hard-to-engage, hard-to-assist young homeless males 16-25 years of age.

The program will focus on permanency planning to provide the client a sense of purpose, stability and certainty about what their future holds. From the outset, goal setting will revolve around realistic and clearly articulated outcomes.

Official Launch date 18 September 2008

UPDATE:

From the Article: (Times2 – Monday, September 22, 2008)

A fresh start to a new, healthy life

Bridge Back to Life Foundation House opening.

Story and Pictures: Lyn Mills

I’ts an ordinary in an ordinary suburb, and with a lick of paint, a garden clean up, comfortable furniture and a barbecue out the back, it’s a family home that fits with it’s suburb. But this home is anything but ordinary.

Three formerly homeless young men have moved in to start a new life. They do so with the support of people determined that they succeed in finding a purpose, quality of life and a new dignity.

Chairman of the board of the Bridge Back to Life Foundation Dave Rugendyke, who secured, furnished and spruced up this house with wide-ranging community and business input, officially opened the home.

Local parish priest Father Warrick Tonkin blessed it. Then guests joined in a celebratory launch of orange and brown balloons, many of which immediately lodged in the surrounding gums. Significant perhaps as there will be hazards along the way for these young men.

The men expressed their gratitude to the driving force behind this initiative, Rhonda Obad. From the tragic loss of her son to a heroin overdose Rhonda has found a way to make a differencefor other young men, with this one-stop transitional support service, which has stays for three to six months, aimed at young men from 16-25.

The volunteers from People Knowhow Canberra were among the guests, and will be providing ongoing support, along with Oz Harvest, which collects unwanted food from restaurants around Canberra to disperse. We certianly ate well on those leftovers.

With the media present the first three tenants were reluctant to be identified, and judging by their stories I can understand why, but they were open and honest about the whys and wherefores of reaching this turning point in their lives.