Essential services stay open during outbreak
TOOWOOMBA services assisting the city’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged have revealed how operations will change as the coronavirus crisis worsens.
Organisations like Lifeline Darling Downs, the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul’s and the Basement soup kitchen met on Friday to establish a plan as it comes to grips with social distancing rules and the possibility of a statewide shutdown.
It comes as demand for services continues to increase in Toowoomba, all while donations from the public drop.
The Toowoomba Housing Hub will remain open during business hours to help people battling homelessness and all counselling services will still be available by phone.
Lifeline Darling Downs CEO Derek Tuffield said the co-ordinated effort would ensure essential services were still available.
“All NGO partners who attended the meeting are reporting a rapid increase in demand for assistance since the upsurge in cases of COVID-19 in Australia, while at the same time they are also faced with a reduction in donations to help meet the increase in demand,” he said.
“It is also important to remember that the many daily requests for assistance that our various organisations faced prior to the introduction of COVID-19 also continue and have not subsided.
“These include housefire victims, families fleeing domestic and family violence, people who are homeless or have just become homeless and low-income families struggling to have enough food.”
Another NGO meeting will be held soon.