Homeless people are drifting from rural locations into Ballarat, according to a landmark study.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Rough Sleeping in Victoria was overseen by Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Tony Nicholson, who travelled to Ballarat to meet with UnitingCare workers before its release.
The paper found the focus on rough sleeping in recent years, fuelled by media coverage and proposed new Melbourne City Council rules targeting street sleepers, was only the most high-profile end of Victoria's homelessness problem.
The state's rough sleepers made up just 6 per cent of 22,000 homeless people.
And most people sleeping rough across Victoria were counted not in Melbourne’s CBD but in the city’s outer suburbs, rural areas and regional centres such as Ballarat.
“The data suggests ... a drift from regional and rural locations into major regional cities such as Geelong and Ballarat,” the paper said.
The data suggests ... a drift from regional and rural locations into major regional cities such as Geelong and Ballarat
- Rough Sleeping in Victoria report
It also painted a picture of a typical rough sleeper in Victoria. About 75 per cent were male, their age was around 40 and more than 80 per cent were Australian born.
Thirteen per cent were Indigenous, who make up less than 1 per cent of Victoria's population.
UnitingCare Ballarat’s Wendy Ferguson, who helped prepare the report, said her organisation had been involved in a pilot program where a worker, Adam Liversage, had started visiting rough sleepers in the city.
“One theory is that homeless people get to a stage where they don’t access services because of certain barriers, so we go to the person and provide help,” she said.
Mr Liversage was recently awarded a gong at the Victorian Homelessness Achievement Awards for his work.
“Initially a lot of funding for rough sleeping was geared towards Melbourne’s CBD, but hopefully through this report we will see more funding come to Ballarat,” Ms Ferguson said.