The increasing frequency of extreme weather and fire danger days is creating a rising concern for people sleeping rough.
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Uniting Ballarat and City of Ballarat staff worked together on Monday to prepare extreme weather packs to hand out to rough sleepers during the summer months.
Street to Home program coordinator Adam Liversage said many people experiencing homelessness in Ballarat and the surrounding region were living in bushland.
Known locations for rough sleepers include White Swan Reservoir, near Trentham and Scarsdale, and areas around Creswick including Slaty Creek.
We will make sure they are safe. That’s what these packs are for
- Adam Liversage, Uniting Ballarat
“When we receive Department of Health and Human Services alerts regarding extreme weather days or days when there are multiple days of hot weather we collect the packs and drop them off to community members who are rough sleeping,” he said.
“It is hard on extreme weather days for rough sleepers. We will make phone calls and try to put them in hotels over a period of time where there are successive days of hot weather. We don’t think twice, we will put them in a hotel and we do have funding for that.
“Other times we will make sure they are safe. That’s what these packs are for.”
The extreme weather packs contain sunscreen, water, insect repellent, hats, thongs, t-shirts and electrolytes.
They may also be provided to emergency services, City of Ballarat workers and other homelessness agencies in the Central Highlands for distribution.
Mr Liversage said Uniting Ballarat staff would contact City of Ballarat and CFA in cases where a rough sleeper was located near fire.
But he said it could be difficult to find people sleeping in the bush with a limited ability to describe locations.
“Today we went to visit a rough sleeper deep in the bush and he had made arrows out of moss so we could find him,” he said.
“We do have a hot spot map we provide to DHHS of exactly where rough sleepers are so if we do have an emergency we can pinpoint as close as we can where they would be.”
The majority of rough sleepers have submitted applications for housing through DHHS and are waiting on Ballarat’s priority housing list, according to Mr Liversage.
Uniting Ballarat is the lead agency in the region responsible for response to extreme weather.
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