Spirit of hope among the most vulnerable

Coats and warm bedding are welcome aid for Melbourne's homeless people as winter takes hold, but hope is the other rare commodity that can bring desperately needed warmth to a vulnerable community.

By JINGJING FU

This is a cold night. It is the beginning of a typical Melbourne winter, and the temperature is quickly dropping to 5℃.

Renee doesn’t feel the cold, despite having waited in North Melbourne for hours. Her eyes fill with hope. She knows Avalon Centre’s “moving wardrobe” will come soon, and she will get free clothing and bedding.

At 8pm, the charity van arrives, right on time. Before volunteers can even take all the bags from the van, she is rummaging for warm clothing.

“I must be quick,” she says.

In just a few minutes, a dozen people have crowded around the bags of clothing, looking for coats and jackets. Like Renee*, they all call the Melbourne streets home.

“Look at them, they all need winter clothes to keep warm at nights,” Renee says.

This is only the first stop of the Avalon Centre’s mobile clothing service. Every Sunday night, volunteers drive to the city and stop in five different locations to provide clothing to the disadvantaged and rough sleepers.

Rebecca* just joined the volunteer group for a month. She was attracted to the free clothing concept after she saw the Moving Wardrobe in the city.

“I just moved here from Sydney and I want the chance to interact with the community, not just on my own age level or interest level,” she says.

As a musician, Rebecca spends a lot of time writing songs and music. She also works in a cafe couple of days a week. But on Mondays she is at the Avalon Centre helping to sort through donations.

“I have learnt how to sustain the energy needed while helping other people and how much it actually requires from you to really make a difference to somebody’s life,” she says.

Avalon Centre has run its clothing distribution program for five years, and it's particularly welcome among homeless people as the weather gets colder.

“They are really good,” Renee says. “Most of us come out at nights.” She glances at the bag of clothes she managed to get in her left hand, and grabs it tighter.

“My body would have been trembling without this stuff,” she says. “You can’t really understand what it is like when you stay in your warm home.”

Flinders Street Station is the best known of Avalon’s regular stops.

But Renee never goes there, describing it as a “conspicuous place”. She doesn’t want everyone to know she is homeless.

With a clean face, neatly dressed and polite manners, this 28-year-old woman looks no different from anyone else, except she lives on the streets.

“There is always a lot of people at Flinders street, good ones as well as bad ones,” she says.

She doesn’t want to be labelled. But the most important thing is that she wants to be safe. Homeless for two years, she has been assaulted no less than 10 times at big streets or places near pubs.

“Drunk people, they just scold me for no reason,” she says. “What I am really afraid of is drug dealers.”

A survey conducted by the City of Melbourne for StreetCount 2013 shows half of the homeless people who took part had been assaulted at some stage while experiencing homelessness, most often by other rough sleepers and drug dealers.

Even worse, many of those interviewed had been abused by members of the general public when they were begging.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says 35 participants took part in the research program, and the majority of them have experienced long-term homelessness.

However, 35 participants represents a small group. It is believed more than 100 people sleep rough in the city on any given night.

Across Victoria, there are over 22,000 people who are living in cars, struggling on streets and dossing in garages.

“We must always remember that there are some Melburnians who have never had a fair go, who for reasons beyond their control, have found themselves without a place to call home. We need to continue to work to break the cycle,” Doyle says.

The City of Melbourne has been trying to control the problem.

Recently, it began developing a new homelessness strategy by working collaboratively to provide long-term affordable housing options and streamlining referral services.

“Through this strategy, we have set some ambitious targets to work towards with our partners so together we can make a real difference to lives of vulnerable Melburnians,” Doyle says.

Renee is pleased to hear there might be a pathway out of homelessness. “That sounds really good,” she  says.

“I wish I could get rid of homeless situation as soon as possible.”

Renee says many people look on homeless people with a jaundiced eye.

“People think we are lazy, preferring begging rather than making a living by ourselves,” she says. “I want to have a job, but my body don’t allow me to do it.”

After living on the streets for two years, Renee has many physical diseases. However, she believes she has been luckier than most homeless people.

“Anyway, I can take care of myself, I don’t have drug problem or mental health issue,” she says.

Both mental illness and drug abuse are common among homeless people and are the main barriers that hinder them from living a normal life.

According to the 2013 Rough Sleeper Street Count Report, 76 of 124 participants from Melbourne CBD suffer from mental illness. Most also have other serious medical conditions.

However, homeless people with health issues rarely go to regular hospital for treatment.

In an effort to combat this, Central City Community Health Service, operated by Cohealth, is working with the City of Melbourne and other 14 health and welfare agencies to provide a one stop shop to ptovide a range of health and support services.

The manager of Central City Community Health Service, Brian Sardeson, says health was a neglected area for homeless people.

“Having a central location that people can access is great for people that sleep rough," he says.

“We also focus on outreach services, in which we go out to different services and meet the people where they comfortable.”

Sardeson says they have staff who have experienced homelessness themselves, which can help them engage with clients and speak the same language.

“Because they have first-hand experience of homelessness, they can make our clients feel comfortable and safe. This is very important,” he says.

Sardeson says more and more homeless people are making use of the service.

“I think the demand is increasing because homeless people are more aware of what happening for them,” he says.

Frontyard Youth Services, run by Melbourne City Mission, is another joint initiative to provide integrated youth services to homeless teens.

“Homeless youth is more vulnerable,” the manager of Frontyard Youth Services, Wayne Merritt, says.

“Most of them have experienced family breakdown, domestic or family violence,” he says. “The emotional costs of the trauma involved are substantial.”

Alfred,* 17, ran away from home three years ago after he couldn’t stand to hear his parents yelling at each other any more.

For the past six months, he has slept on the streets with five other young people in the CBD. Alfred says that he prefers to live on the streets than go back to live in crisis accommodation.

“I just can’t get along with people there,” he says. Alfred takes care of other five youth as he is the oldest one in the team. He begs at Flinders street as long as the weather is good.

“We just need spare coins from people to buy food,” he says.

It’s seven in the morning, Alfred and his team are heading to Frontyard Youth Services. They found the place recently and come here almost every day.

The reason is simple: free food and educational brochures.

“People here said I can go back to school if I want,” Alfred says.

Frontyard strongly supports education. Merritt says: “We believe education is the best way to get them back on track.”

“Young people make up almost half of the 22,800 Victorians counted as homeless,” he says.

“Only 51 per cent of homeless youths stay within the Victorian school system.

“We are working with Melbourne Academy to provide support to young people who are disengaged from education and reconnect them with schooling.”

Outside Merritt's office, Alfred is waiting for duty workers. He will chat with them about going back to school.

He is nervous and his hands are tightly crossed. He knows it could be a fresh start.

At the same time, at Melbourne Central Station, Renee is holding hands with another homeless man.

Although the road ahead is unknown, at this point, Renee is happy, also believing a fresh start could be open to her.

“From now, I am no longer alone,” Renee smiles.

Soon the city will be crowded again. More than 400 homelessness will come to the heart of Melbourne to start a new day. The future for many will be bleak, but as Alfred and Renee show, the spirit of optimism is hard to quell.

*  Renee, Alfred and Rebecca preferred not to provide their full names.