By Mikayla van Loon
To launch into Homelessness Week with a better and broader view of the current situation, some of the leading organisations and services in the Yarra Ranges gathered for a forum on Sunday 6 August.
Hosted at the Tecoma Uniting Church, representatives from Anchor, Holy Fools, Stable One, Soupees, Uniting Ringwood, Orange Sky, Foothills Community Care and Yarra Ranges Council shared data and experiences on what is happening locally in the homelessness space.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data indicates there are 30,660 people who are homeless on any given night in Victoria, 24 per cent higher than the previous Census in 2026.
This represents people in all situations denoting homelessness, whether sleeping in a car, on a friend’s couch, in a boarding house or in a tent in a national park.
Holy Fools CEO and founder Neal Taylor said unfortunately in Australia there is not one single and clear definition of homelessness.
“I think that in a country of our size it is ridiculous and I think that we need to do something about that,” he said.
“However, the ABS defines homelessness as someone with the lack of one or more elements that represent home.”
In the Yarra Ranges alone in the 2016 Census, 360 people were identified as being homeless which increased to 755 by 2021.
Wanting to gain a better understanding of homelessness in the Yarra Ranges, Mr Taylor said he would like, with the help of all agencies in the region, conduct a survey.
“The City of Melbourne does street count and I think it would be good to try something like that in the Yarra Ranges,” he said.
“Considering we’re one of the largest local government areas in the state, it’s going to be quite a challenge but I think that’s something that we need to do.”
The reason for this being to potentially improve funding streams with a more accurate picture of how many people are experiencing homelessness.
Funding for these agencies is crucial in getting people the support they need, something Anchor’s youth and homelessness manager Peter Dinsdale touched on.
“During the Covid experience the government put in a lot of money that translated into hotel accommodation and at one point, as small as we are, we had 55 families in local hotels,” he said.
“That really showed the size of the issue. In that year we spent just over a million dollars on hotel accommodation. Our budget this year is $56,000.”
Agreeing with the need for building housing and already seeing the benefits of the $5.3 billion Big Build Project from the State government, Mr Dinsdale said housing doesn’t solve everything.
“Even after the Big Build, Victoria will still have the lowest percentage for Australia when it comes to public and social housing [stock],” he said.
Telling the story of a young man who was sleeping in a tent, Mr Dinsdale said the Rapid Response team from Anchor found him soaking wet from the rain.
“His mental health and his drug and alcohol addiction was so pervasive that he could barely take care of his tent.
“In fact, his feet themselves had become mouldy. We were able to get him into a doctor just to take care of his feet and get him some dry socks, shoes and a new tent, but we couldn’t get him into a house.
“And that’s not actually because of a lack of housing in this case, because if we were to find a unit somewhere to put this young man, he is not going to survive without the wraparound services.”
Hearing from Stable One managing director Jenny Willetts, Orange Sky Volunteer Ron Iddles and Soupees founder Gavin Smith, it became clear that there was a lot of good work being done in the Yarra Ranges community to support people without a permanent home.
But more so what these services offer is connection without judgement and a sense of feeling less alone.
“We know that loneliness and homelessness go hand in hand. When people come to stay at the winter shelter, they connect with people who care,” Ms Willetts said.
Mr Iddles said aside from washing people’s clothes across 33 different locations in Melbourne, the most important statistic from last year was the “89,000 hours of conversation with our friends”.
For Mr Smith who has been running a community meal in Upwey for over 14 years, it came from a desire to connect in a way he knew was possible for him.
“Soupees is all about serving people and that is something I’m really keen on. It’s something that I actually think I’m quite good at.
“I can get out there and I can set up a marquee and tables and people will come along and I can talk to them and I can feed them.”
Foothills Community Care CEO Stephen Barrington said for the people who come to a meal either in Ferntree Gully or Upwey might not have sat down for dinner with someone across the table to talk for a long time.
“It might be the only time in the week where they actually get to sit down at a table with someone else, in a safe space and be listened to and to be able to share their story,” Mr Barrington said.
From the forum, the groups, organisations and services agreed “bricks and mortar” is the key element to getting ahead of the homelessness crisis but alongside that, the wraparound services for mental health, domestic violence and financial stress need to improve.
To boost the support these services can offer, volunteers are needed, particularly for Winter Shelter to help see out the final month of giving people a place to sleep.
