HAYLEY SORENSEN

thought we’d go and get some food. It put a smile on his face and I’m sure he really enjoyed it,” Hoffman said.

He said he acted on “instinct”.

“We both just wanted to give back to the community. It was just one of those things that just happened there and then.”

Reading that story this week, I felt a pang of shame – for myself and for our city.

I was embarrassed of the terrible impression of our city Hoffman and Smith took back to Sydney with them and I was embarrassed that I recognised myself in their comments.

It’s easy to become desensitised. Darwin talkback radio – and often the pages of the NT News and Sunday Territorian – are jammed with people having their say on our “itinerant problem”.

Shop owners complain about the mess they leave behind and that they frighten away would-be customers.

Those are legitimate problems that have a real impact on those traders.

But sometimes, the conversation can get nasty, as though we’re dealing with human pollution.

Sadly, to do what Hoffman and Smith did every time you encountered a homeless person in Darwin would be an full-time job – one that sent you broke.

But as NT Shelter executive

“I was embarrassed of the terrible impression of our city Hoffman and Smith took back to Sydney with them”

officer Peter McMillan told the NT News this week, you don’t have to be Mother Teresa or Bill Gates to treat a homeless person with humanity.

He recommended simply reaching out to those sleeping rough – asking if they were OK or engaging them in conversation.

“It lets them know that other people are concerned for them,” he said.

“Sadly too many people do walk past homeless people. It does give the impression that they are invisible.”

Even offering a homeless person a smile is better than nothing, Mr McMillan said. We can all afford that. Hayley Sorensen is regular columnist