MANY NEED A BIT OF HELP TO GET BACK HOME
AN Aboriginal elder says most of the itinerant groups in the inner city are not locals.
Alfred Smallwood said many of the indigenous homeless people in the inner city needed to visit Townsville for health or welfare reasons, but then found it difficult to find their way home.
“They come to Townsville for health reasons and then linger here, finding it hard to get back to their permanent home bases,” he said. “That’s what I see every day.
“They get released from hospital or released from prison and find themselves on the street, left out in the cold.”
Mr Smallwood said government agencies and organisations needed to start a dialogue with homeless indigenous groups.
“The agencies need to start talking to the people – find out where they are from and what their problem is,” he said.
“Government agency workers need to go out of their offices and talk to these people one on one.
“Every case is complex and agencies need to work with individuals to respond to some of the underlying reasons they are living an itinerate lifestyle.”
Townsville MP Scott Stewart said the Government had a program in place which helped indigenous individuals relocate them back to their home town, which had a 60 per cent success rate.
Townsville Salvation Army manager Major David Twivey, one of Australia’s most respected charity workers, said government agencies tasked with addressing the homelessness issue needed to take action.
“We don’t need a city with so many people homeless,” he said.
“Research has been completed in the past on the issue, so rather than spend more money and time on more research, these government agencies need to go back to the research that’s already been paid for and re- examine the needs of homeless groups. They also need to get feedback from people who are on the streets and start to implement the strategies sooner rather than later.”