Anne and Mel are among an increasing demographic that is changing the face of homelessness.
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Both women are ‘rough sleepers’ and are older, alone and have experienced life circumstances, including violence, family breakdown, unemployment and health issues, that have led them into poverty and without a safe place to call home.
Mel is a self-described survivor and says she has been on the streets “pretty much half her life.”
She came to Ballarat from Sydney about 15 years ago with her partner, who died four years ago. She now cares for his dog, Bam, but is otherwise alone.
Random acts of kindness happen and it puts my faith back in humanity.
- Mel
“My son turns 30 this year, but I don’t know where he is.” Asked why she stays in Ballarat, Mel said; “I guess the devil you know … I know my way around here.”
It’s her fourth week “out the front” of the Civic Hall and, despite Monday’s coldest temperatures of the year so far, she says she’s okay..
“I know how to make a bed ... I ought to, after all this time. We got heaps of blankets and once you get under them, you’re warm,” she said.
Mel says occasional signs of humanity also “warm” her.
“Random acts of kindness happen and it puts my faith back in humanity,” she said.
“One lady handed me $20, and on Saturday night a 4WD stopped and (they) … dropped off “posh nibblies’ for us. They’d come from a party and said they didn’t want to throw it out.”
Next to her, sleeping and unwell is Ann, who recently “checked herself out” of hospital.
“She’s 60 and she’s sick. A 60 year-old woman should not be sleeping on the streets,” Mel said.
A recent rough sleeping forum in Melbourne revealed that efforts to help “are being hampered by a chronic shortage of public and community housing.”
A recent Parliamentary Inquiry into social housing revealed 82,000 Victorians, including almost 25,000 children, waiting for social housing.
“Without sufficient affordable housing, we are fighting an uphill battle to end homelessness, because people are forced to cycle through rooming houses, crisis beds and other temporary accommodation,” Jenny Smith, Council to Homeless Person CEO, said.