Rough Sleeping in the Regions-A Failure of Our Systems

Disclaimer- Some content within this article is sensitive and could be distressing to some readers.

On a blisteringly hot day recently I was told about a new encampment of tents in a local park where people were sleeping rough.

Fed up with the fact that my community has no assertive outreach programs for those sleeping rough, I drove to the location and approached the collection of tents and called out to see if someone was there. I thought the least I could do is have a yarn and offer some navigation of supports.

To be frank, in Gippsland, Victoria we do not have any services specifically for people sleeping rough such as 'assertive outreach programs' 'street teams' or 'supportive housing teams'. If someone doesn't physically walk through the doors of a specific specialist homelessness service known as an 'entry point', they don't get homelessness support, they will likely slip through the cracks, and we may not even know they exist.

As I stood at the foot of the makeshift encampment and called out, a very slight man appeared, sweating profusely from the humidity of his tent and we sparked up conversation. As someone who has worked in homelessness services for a decade, his story was nothing new to me, but on this day, it hit me like a tonne of bricks as I saw the failure of our systems in the despair of another man's eyes.

He was middle aged, had been chewed up and spat out of the care system as a child and had been experiencing episodic homelessness ever since.

This man had experienced extreme trauma in his life and his grief and pain was displayed prominently on his face. Through the death of a child, physical injuries, mental health issues, legal issues and no family and friend supports to turn to it was evident that the man was lost in our community and lost in our systems, and they were failing him.

We stood and talked about his story for a time, I apologised for inconveniencing him and he insisted that he was happy to talk to me about his story and to have some real human contact as he said others don't see him as human and hurl abuse at him and assault him when he is begging for money on the local streets to survive.

He spoke to me about the failures of crisis accommodation in homelessness services offering him two nights of accommodation maximum where he would need to leave his encampment and his pet, for them to be likely be destroyed or stolen upon his return (as he had previously experienced)

He spoke to me about the failures of case management supports closing him for 'non engagement' when he is sleeping rough and doesn't know when his next meal will be.

He spoke to me about the failures of the health system wanting him to stay in hospital for a week to treat some of his health issues, again not understanding all of his belongings in his collection of tents will be stolen or destroyed while he is gone.

He explained to me that his cat was the only connection he had to anything in his life and stops him from 'hanging himself' on a nearby tree he pointed to and that supports do not understand this or the importance of his pet.

He continued on, pointing out very obvious systems flaws directly from his own perspective that he had experienced in this system for decades.

He said, through beautiful intentions, he is offered lots of support that as a by-product means he will lose his cat, his belongings will be stolen and none of the supports are focused on providing safe, secure housing that will build him a secure base. Most of the support offered is crisis-focused, short term or 'feel good' and he has now learned through being hardened over decades of homelessness that for his own benefit he must stay in his tent instead of taking temporary options and having to start again.

It's simple really, the man needs long-term affordable housing now and not the many other options in our homelessness system. Not two nights of accommodation, not an offer of an unaffordable and unsafe boarding house and certainly not food vouchers.

Once he has the housing, he can then feel much safer and more secure to 'engage'. He can have those health issues treated and he can begin to heal from his trauma and build a sustainable livelihood.

This man is a Gippslander just like me and in my opinion, he should have the basic human right of housing and we as a society owe it to him.

This story is not unique, there are thousands more throughout regional and rural areas in Australia that are 'forgotten'. Their local communities are not funded with the adequate resources to outreach to those sleeping rough, to build connection with them, to source them long term housing and then support them in that housing to sustain their tenancies and work on their other needs, goals, and aspirations.

This is how we end rough sleeping homelessness.

In Gippsland, with just a small 'assertive outreach' team that could go directly to where rough sleepers are at, build that rapport, and then connect them to a pipeline of long-term housing and support, we could eradicate rough sleeping homelessness and provide the right opportunities for people like the man in this story to move from surviving to thriving.

We need to look at our system failures through the eyes of those who actually experience the issue and adjust our social policies accordingly to solve the issue and not waste money just managing it.

-Mitch Burney