The camp in Petrie Plaza is home for Daniel. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Canberrans should find the Petrie Plaza homeless camp confronting.
But as Vinnies CEO Lucy Hohnen says, this sort of thing is not limited to the city but is happening right across the ACT.
Nor should we assume that those rough sleepers are the only homeless people in this town. There are many using their cars, until they can’t be fuelled or registered or need to be sold or left where they sit.
Then there are the couch surfers.
But the camps that spring up around town from time to time put the issue of homelessness in the spotlight of the most comfortable middle-class city in the country.
We should not be surprised that, in the years since COVID, the number of homeless has increased, given the cost of living crisis, the seemingly intractable issue of high housing costs, and a shortage of affordable social housing, despite the ACT Government’s efforts to rebuild and renew the public stock.
It’s a situation replicated across the country, thanks to governments deciding long ago to reduce their commitments to public housing, all while Australian property prices go through the roof.
The meagre crumbs doled out to the jobless these days also mean that the great Australian safety net is pretty threadbare.
Ms Hohnen says our perceptions of the homeless need to be broadened because these days they can be anyone.
Mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and trauma can all be part of the mix. Indeed, if you are not traumatised and mentally unwell at the start, sleeping rough can take you there in a short time.
But in such a vicious housing market, all it takes is a loss of a job and running down of savings to see anyone out on the street or holing up in a car or pitching a tent in the bush.
And then the problems can compound.
Something to be cleared or a wake-up call. Your choice?
The good news is programs like Vinnies’ Street to Home actually work. They take time to earn people’s trust, establish basics like identities, arrange applications, negotiate waiting lists and find suitable accommodation, but Ms Hohnen says there are plenty of success stories. It can be that simple.
The bad news is they are struggling to keep up with the demand, need more workers and more accommodation options for the people they are trying to help.
Governments know this and are playing catch-up, as Homes and New Suburbs Minister Yvette Berry says. They also can’t magic up the much-needed mental health workers, she says.
It’s going to be a long wait for all those new homes to be built, and then one wonders how many will be affordable.
The situation in Petrie Plaza is pitiful. The people there are pulling together some semblance of home and stability among the collected detritus of the city.
Yet it cannot stand.
The government won’t break it up, appealing to the surrounding businesses and city visitors to be patient as the services do their work, but the inhabitants, and the camp itself, will have to go.
Maybe it is a good thing for the camp to be there a while as almost an installation to jolt us out of our complacency and insularity and remind us that the decisions about what we value, and what governments spend our taxes on, come down to choices.
We could choose to spend more on jobless benefits, public housing and the resources to give people a hand up, and not waste so much human potential.
We could choose to not give away billions in tax concessions to those already doing all right or not to distort the property market through tax settings that fuel prices and rents, and lock generations out of owning a home.
But for now, at the coalface, the services and the people they are trying to help deserve more support from government, and from us.
