HOMELESS NUMBERS SURGE
Geelong’s population is booming. But the number of people sleeping rough across our city is rising twice as fast — and is estimated to have reached up to 1500, HARRISON TIPPET reports.
BENJAMIN Hogan has a million-dollar view.
His bedroom looks down the length of Cunningham Pier and across Corio Bay, where winter sunsets daub the sky with ribbons of brilliant pink and purple.
But Mr Hogan sleeps facing the opposite direction, with a couple of bags piled behind his head to block the icy winds blowing off the bay and through the open corridor of the toilet block he’s called home for the past few weeks.
It’s a good spot, but it gets cold. Very cold.
The 29-year-old sleeps under two blankets, a sleeping bag, a couple of jackets given to him by a “nice lady”, and another blanket folded over his feet.
The hood of his jumper is pulled tight around his face, with a bush of wiry black beard fighting its way out of the collar.
Mr Hogan has been at the spot for the past few weeks, maybe months. He doesn’t remember.
“Funny enough, time and days and dates, once you’re on the streets and that, you might have a phone, and that’s the only time you get to know dates and times,” he murmured, lying on his bed with rain drumming on the roof above. “You lose track, you do.” Mr Hogan is one of about 1500 rough sleepers in Geelong, a population that appears to have more than doubled since 2011.
Geelong’s homeless population increased twice as fast as its actual population between the 2011 and 2016 censuses — jumping from 664 to 816. Numbers have continued to rise.
Latest figures from SalvoConnect Barwon, one of the region’s peak homelessness agencies, show 1443 of those seeking assistance in 2017-18 were “without tenure”.
That number is almost 50 per cent higher than in May last year, when SalvoConnect Barwon director Lorrinda Hamilton estimated it was closer to 1000.
“The overall homelessness figures are trending an increase,” Ms Hamilton said this week. “We note an increase in calls from council (regarding) rough sleeping in the CBD.
“We have seen rising rental costs, unaffordable rentals, employment move to skilled areas such as insurance rather than trade, which have impacted on middle-to-lowincome earners. People are over-committing to rentals and mortgages in growth corridors such as the Bellarine and Armstrong Creek, leading to income stress and risk of homelessness.”
Geelong’s homeless increase coincides with a surge in those presenting to services with mental health issues and an increasing complexity of youth homeless presentations.
It comes amid a 12 per cent jump in the waiting list for housing, with about 2500 applicants now on standby for one of the region’s 5000 social housing properties — of which only about 40 are vacant.
Most applicants must wait more than 10 months before they can access a property.
Mr Hogan’s name is on the waiting list for a house — but he’s got “a foot in the door”, as he likes to call it.
“I’ve put in for housing with Salvation Connect,” he said. “Now it’s just that waiting game.”
He struggles to remember how he became homeless.
“I wouldn’t even be able to tell you when it started,” he said. “Gradually.”
As a two-year old, he was placed in foster care in the tiny town of Caveat, about 20km north of Yea, where he was raised with his sister Amber by a kind couple named Norma and Bernard.
He liked it there. But, when Norma died, he decided it was time to get out and see the world. He was 18, so he found himself a car and set off.
In the ensuing years, Mr Hogan would live out of his car, camp in Nagambie and for a short period enjoy a house in Shepparton. That one was unravelled by the toxic relationship with his father.
About six months ago, he found himself in Geelong, invited down by a mate who let him sleep in the shed of his Corio rental.
When his mate decided paying rent was too tough, he headed back to his parents’ home in Broadford, leaving Mr Hogan on the street.
“Basically I got the shaft and I’m homeless,” Mr Hogan said from his toilet block, with no ill-will towards his mate.
“I just tolerate it, mate. I don’t think anybody loves it, or likes it, being homeless.” GEELONG HOMELESS MAN BENJAMIN HOGAN
“Because I’m new around here, I don’t know Geelong in general …. No one knows me, (I thought) I may as well start my life again.
“I used to fish down on Cunningham Pier here, so I thought, ‘Well, the only place I know is here’.” He knows he’s in a good spot — he can wander down to the Eastern Beach pool to use the public shower, hasn’t been abused or harassed so far, and keeps the place clean — stuffing his cigarette butts in an empty bottle when he’s lucky enough to get his hands on some smokes. Still, he doesn’t like it. “I just tolerate it, mate. I don’t think anybody loves it, or likes it; being homeless,” he said. “We’re basically trying our hardest to get through.”
Not everyone is able to steer clear of trouble while sleeping rough in Geelong.
In late 2015, Tom Fraser — better known around town as “Tommy Tatts” — found himself broke and living in his car at Point Henry, behind Alcoa. That was where he soon discovered the dangers of being homeless.
“I got shot at while I was down there, had my car stolen, I got belted a couple of times,” Mr Fraser told the Addy last year. “It was pretty full on.”
Mr Fraser was fortunate to be offered short-term housing last year, but when that property was sold, he was again on the street. The Addy has since lost contact with him.
Even for those lucky enough to keep out of trouble on the streets, there are still dangers.
The peaks of summer and winter were danger periods for the homeless, Ms Hamilton said.
“Exposure to extreme heat and extreme cold impacts on pre-existing health conditions such as heatstroke, dehydration, and cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, which can lead to high-risk medical conditions or pose life-threatening situations for rough sleepers,” she said.
Ms Hamilton said the organisation had funding to open a temporary shelter to house the homeless during extreme weather, and was pushing for support to open it permanently.
“We support opening a permanent facility overnight for rough sleepers, such as we do during extreme weather events and for the supply of further housing, including one-bedroom stock,” she said.
Geelong council’s director community life Linda Quinn said the city would continue to support organisations and agencies assisting Geelong’s homeless, while connecting rough sleepers with those services.
“We are also directly supporting homelessness through the current tender process for the sale of the Old Geelong Gaol,” she said.
“We have made it a precondition of sale that the existing occupancy by Lazarus Community Centre, for part of the building, is extended until April 2022. Lazarus Community Centre is a service provided by SalvoConnect to support homelessness and those who are isolated.”
But as the City of Greater Geelong continues to search for a homeless housing solution, Mr Hogan and about 1500 other rough sleepers will have to endure another night in the cold. PEOPLE AT RISK, FACING HOMELESSNESS OR REQUIRING HOUSING SUPPORT, CAN CONTACT SALVOCONNECT ON 1800 825 955.