Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Unhoused Voices from the Threshold, a podcast about homelessness and housing in the Bega Valley Shire, New South Wales.
The makers of this podcast would like to acknowledge and pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the lands, waterways and airspace across the Bega Valley on which we have made this work.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Welcome to episode five of Unhoused Voices from the Threshold.
In this episode you will hear from two women who have experienced homelessness due to domestic violence and a family who were unexpectedly asked to leave their rented home.
They will all speak about some of the issues they faced, including the lack of affordable housing in our region.
We also spoke with some of the people working for support services and organisations helping the Bega Valley's mainstream and first nations communities.
Please note, there is a small amount of language in this episode. Some names have been changed. However, the stories are all true.
Also, we sometimes found ourselves recording in places that were safe for the participant, which was our priority, but didn't always result in superior sound quality.
First up, we asked people around the Bega Valley if they were aware of homelessness in our shire.
So tell me, are you aware of homelessness in the Bega Valley?
[00:01:47] Speaker C: A little bit. Not like too much, more so like people couch surfing type stuff. Like not really out on the streets begging for money.
But yeah, it's very hidden in the Beaga Valley. It's definitely there.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: You're quite young. Do you know young people who aren't? We mentioned couch surfing?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Is that why you know of couch surfing because they're people your age?
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Like a lot through high school I would hear people just almost living with their friends and just like hopping around from friend to friend more. So just family issues, parents just not being reliable, always travelling away.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Okay, well, thank you.
I was wondering if you could tell me if you're aware of homelessness in the Bega Valley.
[00:02:37] Speaker D: Yes, I am.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Okay. And how have you become aware of this?
[00:02:42] Speaker E: I became aware of this when I was talking to a friend and she mentioned that she had seen, seen one, a lady, constantly on the streets of Mariem.
And one night it was raining and she and her family were out going to the supermarket and they went past the lady who had a dog and she was at a. I think she was at a bus shelter. She was under some sort of COVID but she was getting wet. And so that's such a beautiful story.
So my friend and her partner went and approached the lady and said, said, do you have somewhere to go tonight? And she didn't because she was an Escaped house of like domestic violence.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:03:27] Speaker E: And so they put her up in. They found a hotel that was animal friendly and they put her up in Marimbula.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:03:34] Speaker E: But they continued to do so even though.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Oh wait, so they put her up for the night. Yep. But then they kept supporting her. Yeah.
[00:03:44] Speaker E: So they started creating. So they go over and they would feed her. That's sort of started to understand her, like more of her story, more of her background.
And they had sort of been through something very similar in a different city and so they just trying to like create this network for this person and. Yeah, so they don't have a lot of money, but they're just amazing people who do this.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: So these are friends of yours. So they have kids. Children in the family. So the children are seeing this. Yes. That's pretty cool.
[00:04:16] Speaker E: Yeah, it's amazing. And I'm pretty sure the children help make the food as well, so.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Or their feet. They're making the food for them.
[00:04:24] Speaker E: Yep.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: That's pretty special.
[00:04:26] Speaker E: It is.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: And, and that's a really beautiful story. Thank you so much for sharing that.
[00:04:31] Speaker E: My pleasure.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Thank you.
You will now meet Kate who along with her family for felt frustrated and overlooked by local landlords and agents after being given notice to leave their home outside the terms of their lease. This left them unable to find suitable affordable housing for around four months.
So you are renting, are you in Bega?
[00:05:00] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: And recently you had an experience around Christmas time.
Would you like to tell us about that?
[00:05:09] Speaker F: Well, we were in a signed on to a 12 month lease and the agent gave us 30 days notice due to the house becoming uninhabitable. There was a repair that needed to be made that they weren't prepared to repair.
So. And we sort of pushed it a bit to say, hey, you need to repair this.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:33] Speaker F: And so then they. That's the line they gave us and 30 days within a 12 month lease. Which I always understood that as a renter that you sign a 12 month lease, you have at least that security of that 12 months. But in this case we just signed in September.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: This was just before Christmas and you were already putting up your Christmas tree, you said.
[00:05:57] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: And you've got three kids.
[00:05:59] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: So what did you do?
[00:06:01] Speaker F: Well, we're pretty good at making the best of situations. So we just packed our caravan and took a summer holiday.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Right. And how long did.
[00:06:11] Speaker F: For the six weeks, summer school holidays.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:14] Speaker F: And then we came back, you know, in time for the kids to start back at school and started to look for somewhere where we could rent again so that they could, you know, be back in school.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: And so you stayed in your caravan during that time when you were looking?
[00:06:33] Speaker F: We stayed partly in our caravan, partly at friends houses. Yeah.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: So how long was it, when did you finally get a rental?
[00:06:42] Speaker F: It was around April, I think. Around the Easter. Yeah. Which was good timing because it was starting to get into the cold weather.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: So in that period, how was it looking for a rental in this environment?
What did you find, Kate?
[00:06:59] Speaker F: I found that we had to bear our soul, our income, everything before we were even able to view a property. So that felt very intrusive.
So we did look at a handful of properties in that time and put in applications. We weren't picky. I mean we were family of five that have lived in two bedroom houses. Our three kids have all just shared a room. You know, we also have a dog, so I don't know if that was, you know.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: And did you have a budget, Kate? Was there a price you could not go above?
[00:07:36] Speaker F: Yeah, like there is anything. We could have, we certainly could have pushed it more, but we didn't really want to have to pay, you know, most of the houses, you know, upwards of $600 a week, you know.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Are you, you and your partner both working at the moment or at that time?
[00:07:54] Speaker F: Yes. Yeah, there was, there was some that were coming up that we didn't actually get to look at. Like they, they'd go before we, you know, we'd ring the agent, they say you can look next week. And then by then, oh no, you can't look now. They kept sort of getting put off a bit.
Maybe we looked at three of four with an agent, a couple of private ones. Yeah.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: So how long I guess you looking? From the start of school at the end of January until Easter.
[00:08:25] Speaker F: Yeah. So all of term one. Yeah.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:27] Speaker F: And it was hard because our kids had to get different buses to and from school because we were sort of, you know, at one stage and then tander at one stage and then Bega and then Tathra, like, you know, staying in different places. They had to.
It was really unsettling to their routine, so.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: And did they cope? Do you think they coped okay with all of that?
[00:08:50] Speaker F: Well, they're all right now, but at the time it was very hard. Yeah. Felt like we were like shitty humans. Like what have we done wrong in our life?
Prioritising raising a family and not chasing the big dollars to have bought a house 10 years ago when they were only. When you could have bought a house in Vega for $200,000. But we were, we prioritized raising our kids. So I didn't work a lot, you know, so you go, oh, maybe we should have done this back then. Or maybe we should have, you know, it really did like hit you going, God, we're such shit humans, you know, because of this and getting, you know, we have a good rental history. We've never lost a dollar on our bond. Like we've always. We're respectful of all the different properties that we've rented over the years like this.
The way I sort of look at it now is our kids have the security of two parents that care deeply for each other and we have a solid relationship. And, you know, wherever we are is home. You know, it doesn't need to be the same spot. I see people that have the nice big house, but the relationships inside those homes aren't as happy as what we have in our home, wherever it is. In our caravan or our 10th rental, we missed out on a house at Kalaroo to a couple that were building a house and just needed something, somewhere to stay while they built their house.
So I was like, they didn't want to put, it's like they didn't want to put a family. Like some landlords don't want a family in their home.
They certainly don't want a dog. And you know, our dog, we would, we're responsible dog owners. You know, we've had dogs for years in rentals and never had an issue.
Yeah, it's like they just, they just rather have a couple or a single or someone without kids because it's.
It's what? Well, I don't know.
I don't know what it is. That's all I could come down to. I said, why all these, they might.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Scribble on the walls or what is that?
[00:11:07] Speaker F: Kids are past scribbling on walls. Yeah, I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is.
The rents have gone up, you know, quite substantially since we moved to the Bega Valley 10 years ago. They've basically doubled from what we were paying 10 years ago.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Really? So what were you paying 10 years ago?
[00:11:30] Speaker F: Well, we were paying $300 a week and now you're looking at like 600. You know, we're not paying that much in Bega, but that's why we came to Biga because it was a little bit cheaper than anywhere closer to the coast.
Oh, okay.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: And that's a lot of money. For example, a single parent family or a family where only one parent Works and wants to stay home more and raise the kids as you did.
[00:12:00] Speaker F: Yeah, well, we couldn't do that now. If I was only having my babies now, we wouldn't have been able to do like how with me being home with the kids now. So I feel for people having their babies now because, you know, it's not as easy to cover that. You'd have to, you know, you're paying child care and that's a whole nother can of worms.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: So you have a, a long lease now or agreement with the owner about how long? Okay.
[00:12:31] Speaker F: Yes. That's good.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah, excellent. Well done.
[00:12:35] Speaker F: Landed on our feet, thankfully. Yes.
Our kids had to change schools and stuff, though. So that was because we moved. So that was big shift for them as well. Yeah.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: And. And how are they going? They enjoying the situation now?
[00:12:51] Speaker F: Yeah, now it's, it's all settled. Yeah. So it's all, it's all good now. Yeah, they're all happy. Okay. Yeah. Because you got teenagers, you can't, the teenagers don't want to share a room, you know, with their little siblings.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: So you've got a.
Enough bedrooms for the, all the kids.
[00:13:11] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:13:12] Speaker F: It's the first time they've all had their own room.
So that's a big.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: That's a winner.
Now you'll meet Julie, who spent years in her car after leaving her husband of 40 years and who now has a home in Bermagui with her beloved support dog, who you will hear in the background of this segment.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: I went up to collect some squares from the CWA lady to put together and they said, well, you know, I've not seen any homeless in Bermagui. And I said, well, I've been here for nine years.
They just said, well, where did you park? I just said, well, I parked over near the Surf Club and I parked at the Michael Lerner Lookout and I parked up in the bush up Nutmese Creek Road and you know, where I found safe places. They just said, oh, really? And then. Change the subject.
I left my husband 12 years ago, nearly now. I was with my sister for a year, about a year, and then she went inland and I didn't want to. So I ended up in my car, which was a falcon at the time. It was a bit squishy. It took me a long time to leave. My children had already left home. I had 16 grandchildren by then. I was married at 17, had my first child not long after. I was never happy in the marriage, but I never questioned it because as I said, I came from a Violent home. It was a violent marriage. So I just went along and did what I could do. And then I was 57 when I left him. And there were things that happened. We travelled a bit and there were things he would say and things he. And it just really started. I started to notice, well, hang on, he's putting me down all the time. I mean, he'd done that our whole marriage.
But I started to notice. We went to Latvia to visit a friend. When they picked us up from the airport, the young man said to me, you've had your hair cut, it looks really good. And my husband said, in a really derogatory way, makes her look like a sister. And that was the moment I knew I was living in. You can't even let me have a. A compliment. Four days after we got that, I left. He went off to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, which he didn't think I knew about. Anyway, I said to my sister, you ready to go? We can pack our gear. And she packed her car and I packed one of our cars and we left. After I'd been. After we got to Burmi and we'd settled in the flat. Yeah, it started to feel good and as I said, I started to feel safe. And then I went splat and needed psychiatric help. Found a fantastic counsellor. I went and saw him a million times in three years or four years.
It's just hard to find who to go to. That's the biggest problem.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: You're in your car, like that's fairly unsafe.
Did you manage to find safe places?
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Yes, I.
I didn't know Burmy very well when I first was in my car, but I found safe places, as I said, over near the surf top, that's fairly visible, but it's far enough away where you can be private. And the toilets are over there, which is good. And yeah, there's places, 5K's out of town up the bush and that's on the Tatara road. Yeah, there's another little place on the Tata Road that only costs $5 a night, I think it is, or something. They've got the old drop toilet and you can park there. No power or anything. Well, when I was in. I did go to stay in Beaver for a little while. I was in social housing for a very short while. That was terrible.
And I met the people who set up the food pantry and Ricky's place. I used to go there to eat. And then I moved to Burma and I like Burma and it's smaller and it's. Yeah, it's not as much traffic and it's quieter and you can just do what you need to do.
[00:17:14] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: For nine years you were living out of your car.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah well I did do some house sitting on and off for various people.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Living in your car, that's not ideal.
So the day to day practicalities of that are pretty tough, aren't they? I mean how do you wash your clothes and have a shower?
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Well you know I'm old school, I'm nearly 70 so I've done hand washing before. I raised four kids and we moved around a lot.
I've hand washed many times and I can wash my hair and do my teeth with one cup of water.
And wipes, wipes are wonderful. You know you can use wipes for. Well I used to get the 20 liters and there are places around, there's a power point over near, on the fence near the, near the toilets over there that the homeless people know about. A lot of people don't but I know it's there. You find where the power points are so you can charge your phone and you know you can fill most places. Don't mind you filling up your water container over by the oval, there's a.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Tap and you just wash your clothes.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: In a towel and I, I just have a bowl and wash my clothes and I string up some cords and, and hang them out there in the, in the bush.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Did you have a post box?
[00:18:28] Speaker B: I have, I still have a post box, yeah. And yeah, my car was insured for the Bermakui area. I used a friend's address and they were fine with it and yeah, yeah, I mean the biggest problem for me was keeping things cold Burmese a small place and I did, did leave some things in friends freezers every now and then.
I had breast cancer whilst about four years ago so that was. I really enjoyed being in hospital, having a shower right there next to my bed.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: What about the cancer? How did that go? You're all right now?
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah, so far so good and fingers crossed.
My hardest thing was finding people who knew who you could go to and getting help. For me it took me, I put myself into the mental health unit because it was from there that I got told about all these places that could help me and that could Mission Australia spin offs from them that they put me in touch with others and they put me in touch with the aged care people. I did that last May. I had just tried to live with my daughter in Queensland and I came back, I was here for a few weeks, weeks and it just all got on top of me. And I stopped at a friend's place and said, look after the car, call an ambulance.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Okay. You really needed some help at that point?
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Yes, I did, yes.
If you're homeless, go and see Mission Australia and ask them to put you in touch with the other agencies that can help you. They will help you find somewhere to live. I'm on a.
Waiting for an aged care package, but in the interim I'm getting. I have aged care workers come out a couple of times a week and they help me do stuff that I can't do. They'll come shopping with me, you know, all that kind of thing, which is. So if you're older like me, there's that. And I didn't know that until you went to hospital. I went to hospital and they came and visited me because I said I was homeless and then they, the hospital contacted them.
But I used to go to church and we had like a Sunday school group. And I remember this because we were talking about helping people, you know, who needed help, like the homeless and that sort of thing. And one of the ladies there said, but how do you know which one to help?
And I was gobsmacked. And I said, well, don't you just do what Jesus did and help the one in front of you? And that's what I do. I just. If someone needs a hand, I give them a hand. If I don't know what they need, I ask them. I think, I think I'd just like to say that you need to stop judging.
That could be you in that car in five years time. You don't know, you don't know the person's story. Stop judging and see what they need and give them a hand.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: Thank you so much for talking to me today.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: I hope it helps somebody.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Mission Australia plays an important role in the homelessness space in the Bega Valley for many. Here you will meet Iona, the program manager for homelessness in the valley.
How long have you worked for Mission Australia in Bega?
[00:21:40] Speaker H: I have been with the company for 10 years in the homelessness space. Currently within our service, I think we are sitting at about 66 different cases and that consists of individuals, families.
[00:21:55] Speaker G: So yeah, across the board.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: So quite a few.
[00:21:58] Speaker H: Quite a few, yes.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: And in this 10 years that you've been working in the homelessness space for Mission in Bega, have you seen change in this time? Changes or any change?
[00:22:11] Speaker H: Absolutely.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: And has this been changed for the better?
[00:22:15] Speaker H: No.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: So things are getting worse.
[00:22:18] Speaker H: Things are getting worse, things are getting harder. We're seeing. I Think particularly from the bushfires on through Covid, things have steadily declined in the homelessness space.
We're seeing a lot of people who are possibly working full time, who can't find housing, elderly people.
There's been a big change in demographics of people who are homeless. I think, I think it's more of a whole of community.
I think. Yeah, you can be working a full time job now and be living in your car very easily.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: In your experience, can you kind of pinpoint some of the main contributors to homelessness?
[00:23:05] Speaker H: Lack of affordable housing. So the rental prices have just skyrocketed in the last five years to the point.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: So since COVID Yeah.
[00:23:15] Speaker H: So it's unaffordable even for working people here in the Valley.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: In my interviews and research, I've come across some main kind of social issues like people seeking homelessness due to domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse in the home and family breakdown. Yeah, yeah.
[00:23:39] Speaker H: Mental health.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Mental health.
[00:23:41] Speaker H: Release from incarceration.
That's a big one for us. We have a lot of people who have been incarcerated and they're released into nothing back in.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: So there's nothing for them set up for them or offered to them.
[00:23:56] Speaker H: They'll generally access, link to home and then come through our service. Domestic violence, that's always a factor with homelessness and again, pressures of cost of living.
The COVID crisis has seen an increase in people fleeing from domestic violence relationships. And it's not just women. We're supporting men who are fleeing to domestic violence also.
I think the awareness is growing because it is, it's not just a Begavalli problem, it's a, you know, worldwide problem. And I think there's more and more and more awareness.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: It must be extremely hard some days doing what you do.
How do you keep yourself going? What inspires you to keep doing this work?
[00:24:47] Speaker H: I personally love helping people. That's my thing.
I also have an amazing group of people here that work at Mission who all are on the same page in, you know, respect, compassion, empathy and really wanting to make a difference to people. And it's not necessarily big, huge things. It can be just small wins with people that, you know, get them to the next stage. And that's, that's what drives you every day.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Do you think there's enough crisis accommodation available in the Bega Valley?
[00:25:26] Speaker H: Absolutely not. Well, we have the women's refuge, which is fantastic.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Can I ask how many people there are?
[00:25:33] Speaker H: So we can have four individuals or four families within that at the moment.
We definitely need a youth refuge. And I also believe we need a men's refuge.
We need more social housing, more affordable housing and more rental properties that are affordable for people on all sorts of incomes.
[00:26:01] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Now we'll hear from young single mother Kristy, who has struggled with housing her young family, but is now settling into a safe and happy situation. Christie's children identify as Aboriginal.
Did the difficulty or ease at which you could find a place to move to affect whether you stayed or you were just determined to leave?
[00:26:25] Speaker D: I was determined to leave the Yurpadala because of the violent environment I was in.
It was a very difficult situation because at that point in time, real estate, being a single parent with multiple children and a dog, real estates are not a very easy place to approach.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Did you, did you, how long did it take you to find a place?
[00:26:57] Speaker D: I had moved a lot since my, my daughter's birth. I'd stayed at Airbnbs, I stayed at little shacks.
I found a place on Marketplace on Facebook which looked really beautiful.
I went to meet the woman who had the advert up, but essentially she, in the long run, she took major advantage of me because of my desperate situation.
I was paying quite a lot of money to live out of town and it wasn't feasible anymore.
I was chatting about that with a girlfriend and the very next day she sent me a community email saying this little place had come up and I should try and get it.
This was purely luck. It was a private rental. It was everything I was looking for.
I got to meet the owners face to face.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: And they live next door, right?
[00:27:57] Speaker D: They live next door. It's great, it's very peaceful, it's very beautiful.
But it was really by luck.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: How long have you been here now?
[00:28:07] Speaker D: About six weeks.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: And do you feel different? Are things different for you?
[00:28:11] Speaker D: Being settled, it's completely healing my nervous system. But then at the same time, because I've had time to rest and feel safe, it's made me reflect on the last few years of my housing situation and it nearly, it's like it's given me a chance to nearly sit and become depressed because I'm safe to do that and reflect on how challenging and hard the last few years have been.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: How many times have you been homeless in this last period?
[00:28:41] Speaker D: Then it was a six month period from January to July, which that involved sleeping in my car with my children, women's refuges, friends, spare bedrooms.
Within a six month period, we were homeless.
And that was, like I said, I remember sleeping in my car with my girls and having all my stuff laid out at a boat Jetty, terrified someone was going to recognise that we were homeless. Trying to set a bed up in the car as quickly as I could as the sun was going down.
At that time, I had two of my kids with me.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Can you please help me let people know, like, explain to people how that can happen, because you're a very smart, together young woman. So tell me how that happened.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: You're at the mercy of a real estate or a private landlord. It's that simple. Essentially, I'm going up against two income families.
Then you're actually at the mercy of the person who owns the home if it's through a real estate. And I just remember seeing on Facebook you had doctors saying, we've flown in to work at Maria, we desperately need somewhere to live. I'm a nurse, I'm sleeping in my car. So to be an unemployed single mother is really disheartening.
So I never took it personal, like, oh, look at the situation I've put myself in. This is a problem everywhere.
Although then there were comments like, oh, look, you can't even house your own kids.
Of course it hurts, but it's.
I'm hurting for every mother out there who has to hear that.
I couldn't even tell you how many real estates I'd walked into and applied and I got approved through the real estate, but then the owner rejected the application and my finances were fine, my record was fine.
The stigma needs to change around single mothers and kids. We need priority. We actually do need housing because we're vulnerable.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: So where were you sleeping? Where were you parking up Mossy Point.
[00:31:05] Speaker D: Boat ramp. And the boat ramp, you know, that. That did feel like a safe place, but there's still a lot of cars that come through there. I even did my research. You're allowed to sleep in your car on a street unless it says no camping.
But because I had my children with me, I thought I was going to get in trouble. It's scary. What if someone dobs me in? What if someone wants to do a welfare check?
[00:31:29] Speaker A: How many nights did you have to do that?
[00:31:32] Speaker D: In the end, in my car, I say it was only two weeks, but it's not the same as, like, I'm going on holiday, I'm gonna go and camp in the car with my kids. This was all the possessions I could carry in my car. Feeling really vulnerable.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: And so, of course, the reason that you are a single mum at the moment is due to a domestic violence situation.
[00:31:58] Speaker D: Yeah, that's correct.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: When were you in the ref?
[00:32:02] Speaker D: Which you're in Maruya Refuge I stayed at.
So I stayed at 2. I stayed at the Maru Women's Refuge and the Kitungal Women's Healing Centre. I mean, Biga.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:15] Speaker D: So I stayed at 2. Essentially, that place, it changed my life. It helped me put confidence back in myself.
It nourished my children. I made friends there.
I felt safe. It was the safest I'd felt in about a long time. I couldn't even tell you.
I stayed in a hotel through Links to Home in Aladulla.
A good service, but it was still challenging. And I was having a look at how much they've then subsidised a week in a hotel.
It was twice as much as what you pay in rent.
It was a motel, I guess, with a little, like a tiny little kitchen net type thing, a microwave and a little fridge because of drugs and crime.
I specifically picked Ulladulla because I felt safer to go there. We are failing in Australia in social housing. We are really failing.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Have you been in any social housing?
[00:33:18] Speaker B: No.
[00:33:18] Speaker D: Know that the list is about five to 10 years.
That's not okay.
So we need to educate people that modern homelessness is sleeping on someone's couch, it's being in your car, it's staying in refuges, it's having to spend all your money on a hotel.
I spent $3,000 in three weeks in a hotel one time because I didn't know what else to do.
A lot of my savings has gone to being homeless.
The way our community views homelessness here, it was pretty heartbreaking, to be honest.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: I visited Katangal Women's Healing Centre in Bega and spoke with centre manager Donna and team leader Lisa, who took the time to tell me about the healing centre and some of the needs and challenges faced by their community.
Perhaps I can talk a little bit about Katungal itself, about the healing place.
So this is for.
Only for indigenous women and their families, Their children. Yes. Escaping domestic violence or. Yes. Okay.
[00:34:32] Speaker C: If the woman doesn't identify with and the children do, then the family's still welcome to be here. They're still eligible.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: And are you able to assist in. If you have families who are ready to seek new housing or new places to be, are you able to assist them?
[00:34:52] Speaker C: We have like three months, you know, with our families that come in here. And in that time we do the best that we can to try and get them permanent housing.
Most often it's very hard to get housing, permanent housing in that time, which makes it very difficult.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: When you said. You just said it's difficult. Is that because of the lack of housing in the Bega Valley? Yes. Is that something you come up against a lot?
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Absolutely not.
[00:35:22] Speaker C: It depends on which avenue the women choose to take. So they could do like a Start Safely program where homes New South Wales will pay a certain percentage of a private rental market property and then they.
It's kind of matched within their Centrelink income or it's application through homes, through community housing, not private housing.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: There's a waiting list for.
Yeah. How long's the wait?
[00:35:52] Speaker C: Depends, because the women that come in here are eligible to be priority. And so you've got lots of services that are trying to get, you know, women and children in priority. So then, yeah, the list is just forever in a day. How long is a piece of string really?
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I've heard it can be up to three years even on the priority list.
[00:36:12] Speaker C: Easy.
[00:36:13] Speaker I: Yeah, that, you know, and the expectations too. When you're dealing with someone that's fled domestic violence and the trauma that they're going through, they generally don't have the required documents. So that becomes a real challenge.
And, you know, you might be ready to. Or they might have the paperwork, but then they're not in a. In any state to be dealing with that or going through that process. You know, days, just from one day to the next can be a challenge for the people that we are dealing with. And trying to make that all come together in a tight. It just doesn't work.
It is a massive challenge. And sometimes, you know, housing are also extremely stretched with the amount of applications that they're doing. So if they're, you know, trying to find where a client might be at, they don't have the resources and then we don't get the answers. So it can be sometimes really challenging to bring it all together, you know, and the amount of paperwork involved in housing is quite.
Yeah.
Generally speaking too.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: When you look at.
[00:37:30] Speaker I: Domestic violence, it's multi, multi layered.
It comes, you know, with mental health, financial, all those things.
And, you know, the Bega Valley has been through a lot over since the fires.
We're a very caring community. There's a lot of services out there to support people. But where everybody is stretched, the level, you know, the level of need far outweighs the support that's out there.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Is there much homelessness in the Bega Valley indigenous community as a result of domestic violence?
[00:38:09] Speaker I: Absolutely. We are aware and get calls about people being also, like, at risk and what that is going to look like when, say, crisis accommodation comes to an end.
And then it's very likely that the clients might end up going back to their, to their abuser.
[00:38:33] Speaker C: Because we're a small community and the tight closeness of kinship and community most often within DV than, you know, if it wasn't for this place. And even though it's newly opened.
[00:38:52] Speaker H: Community.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Members are going to other mobs in community, you know, so it's hard to highlight the level of DV within our Aboriginal community because when something goes wrong, we will just kind of band together.
[00:39:09] Speaker G: And help each other out.
[00:39:11] Speaker C: And that's because of, you know, the history of relying on mainstream services and white organisations.
There's that distrust for healing for families.
Then it's most often that you would see that they will travel to, you know, women and children will travel to other family's house in different states, jurisdictions or just even in community in general.
[00:39:45] Speaker I: And the level that, once that's unpacked too, and they reach out to services like ours, the level of trauma, historical trauma and the trauma that they're in, the unpacking of that and the level of work involved in that is extremely complex because, yeah, you might be dealing with the current trauma, but there's so much more behind that and that's really, really hard to find solutions. Sometimes it takes a long time to actually unravel that. And then trying to find the right supports in place for our Aboriginal community as well, that's actually something that I have noticed coming over from another service and into this service is the complexities amongst our vulnerable community. Scoping, domestic violence. It is a lot.
Look, I keep saying the word complex because it really is like it's, it's, there's a lot more layers to this that need to be really unpacked gently and, you know, day to day it can change quite rapidly.
So it's. And again, that trust element, that trust as well as, you know, being in like community as well, causes so many different things that are so different than in mainstream. It's very, you've got to work very, very differently with a different lens.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: I headed down to Jigamee and caught up with Alison, co CEO and cultural advisor and Sarah, the housing manager, both of Twofold Aboriginal Corporation, who spoke to me about the struggles and occasional wins in providing housing for their community.
I went onto your website to have a look at what you do under your housing banner. How many, like accommodation spaces do you have in total?
49. And they're all 40. Is that why they're not available yet?
And do you have a waiting list for those? Yep. And how many people or groups are on the waiting list about, on our specific list there's probably 30 people, right? Probably 25 of those are homeless. And the, and the wait list is a long time because these people stay, don't they?
[00:42:25] Speaker E: Yeah, that's right.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: They're long term rentals. People make them their home.
And do you have short term accommodation available?
[00:42:32] Speaker B: No, we don't.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: So for your. And you work specifically with the first nations community? Yes. Yeah. So if these, if that members of this community can't find anything through you, do they then go to Mission and other organizations? Campbell Page. Yes.
[00:42:49] Speaker G: Yeah, I know it's a huge issue and I know because, you know, Sarah mentioned our waiting lists. Like we have long waiting lists. We have, you know, you hear the stories, you know it. But for me personally, I guess it's not something, it's not something you can see necessarily. It's not homelessness in, in the Beaker Valley is not people living under bridges or living out of trolleys. They're couch surfing, they're living with family and friends for short periods of time, you know, so it's not something, something that you can label. And so it may not seem like it's a huge problem because you can't, you're not exposed to it in that kind of sense where you might be in the cities, you know, so sometimes I think if, if you're not exposed to it then you're less impacted by it and perhaps don't necessarily see that there's a problem as what there is.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: So where do you, Sarah, where are people living when they, they can't. There's no, there's no refuges here. There's no crisis accommodation down this way. So where are people living?
Friends, family, motels, caravans, tents, cars, Wherever.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: They can, I suppose.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Are you aware of any specific issues with young people in your community? Oh yeah, it's a huge, it's probably more prominent than older people. Yeah, huge amount of young people homeless.
[00:44:19] Speaker G: And it's really hard because, you know, they don't have the rental histories. They can't prove that they're good tenants. They might not necessarily have the income as well, like the income to match the rentals that are available, which puts them at a huge disadvantage. You know, I think it's, it's multiple things. It's definitely the, the lack of housing and this and the shortage of available suitable accommodation for people. It's also the price of it, you know, you know, if there's, if you. In a, in a community where there's, where lack of employment is an issue, then that's going to impact on your income. Your income's going to, to impact on where you know where you can live.
And then the shortage of housing or social housing which people might be able to afford just makes it hard.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: So is there a lot of unemployment in, in Eden?
[00:45:19] Speaker G: I believe so, yeah. Yeah.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: I wanted to ask you. So you manage, it says on your website, 35 community houses across the shire, including. I know it's more than that, but including those owned by the Aboriginal housing organisation Bega Lalk and Eden lalk. Yep.
[00:45:42] Speaker G: We are the only registered housing provider. Aboriginal registered housing provider in the Bega Valley. But we're not the only Aboriginal organization that provides support to. To community. We've got our land councils that provide support. We've got Katangal that provides support. And then we've also. There are also a range of NGOs as well that are not specifically Aboriginal organisations, but they have Aboriginal workers and funding to support Aboriginal people in health and housing and stuff like that. That so great.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Okay. Is Campbell Page one of those? Yeah, Campbell Page is what I found in my research. There's 35,000 people homeless in New South Wales. 20% of those who experienced homeless out of that group identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. That's a lot considering they are at 3.8% of the. Of the whole population. They're 20% of the homeless.
Our list specifically, there's probably 30 people on there.
[00:46:53] Speaker I: However, we, we manage aho properties as well. So that's. The DCJ list is endless.
[00:47:00] Speaker G: When you have a look at the list for us that ranges from young people to, you know, grandparents, you know, like it's, there's, it's not a specific, specific age group. It's a, it's from, from, you know, teens, 17, you know.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:17] Speaker H: From 16 to 75.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Got 16 year olds.
[00:47:20] Speaker G: Yeah. Yeah. We've got a couple actually on our list, don't we recently a couple of 16 year olds. We've got pregnant young women requiring a space for them and their, and their, their future families.
Then you've got. Yeah. Others who are needing to be out of their family home and in motels. Motels seem to be the biggest.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: How do they afford a motel?
When it's long term? They're charged out at a weekly rate. But it's, I mean you've got one room with a microwave and it's $315 or $20 a week.
[00:47:56] Speaker G: Yeah, it's ludicrous.
The thing that I always say with housing.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:02] Speaker G: Everybody if they could well, not everybody, but a lot of people would love to own their own homes. A lot of people who are currently renting. The amount of rent that people are paying is often more than what it costs for a mortgage repayment.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: It's officially more.
[00:48:16] Speaker F: Well, it's more.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:48:18] Speaker G: And so what's the issue from my opinion is that the deposits required to get the loan is where people should struggle. They can, they can pay their mortgage because it's proven through the amount of rent they're paying. So they can pay their mortgage with the money left over, they can pay their rates. I believe that many, many people would be able to pay a mortgage. It's just getting that 30, 40, $50,000 deposit or more that's required because by the time people save that much money, inflation and stuff like that, oh no, what you could usually get for 50,000 now has cropped up to 80 or 90,000. That's what I guess IBA do really well, which is Indigenous business. Australia for first home buyers is the way they support indigenous people into home ownership is they have a lower deposit rate which means that people have an opportunity to save that and then you know, go into home ownership. And when you have your own home it's like that Maslow's theory where to reach self actualization and to be the best that you can be first you need the basic needs covered and the security of a home and you know like all of that kind of stuff. Those basic needs need to be met first because people can't achieve the greatest they can be without having those things, things met first.
And how can you be the greatest you can be when you're worrying about where you're going to sleep, you know, where you're going to, you know, potentially get your next meal from like those. Yeah, I think sometimes we take that stuff for granted, you know.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: Sarah, so what does the future look like in this area for you to what you do?
I don't know. I don't even know.
[00:50:13] Speaker B: Do not, don't know.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: I hope it looks better than it does now because it doesn't look great now.
So you're not able to help so many people. Yeah. Which doesn't feel good. We have support letters coming in, we.
[00:50:26] Speaker H: Have phone calls, we have support workers calling.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: We have not daily but weekly people.
[00:50:31] Speaker H: Begging and there's just nothing that we can do.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: So people are begging for house houses. Yep. So what about you Alison? How does the future, what do you think the future looks like for our corporation recently?
[00:50:46] Speaker G: I can't like we've gone from owning 10 properties and now owning 17.
So that's. That, that's. We, we applied for, for funding, we were successful with it and, and that's increased our social housing portfolio. That means seven families. Families are now housed in our area. So. So that's, you know, like, that's fantastic. I can't forget the fact that, yeah, in the last, what, six, seven months, we've, we've been lucky enough to have that. More does need to be done, though, although it's not often. But being able to contact somebody who is homeless to say, hey, you know what, we've got a place that we can offer you. You like. It was, you know, we had a client who on, on this particular day we had a social event.
She's an Aboriginal elder and she was homeless and had been homeless for quite some time. She cried as she got off and she said, oh, well, don't forget to come and pick me up to take me to the refuge tomorrow. But that afternoon there was a property available and, you know, we were kind of like, we want to be on the phone when you make that phone call. So. So our housing manager at the time got like. We were in a meeting, somebody come out and they ran in and they said, we're going to ring her, we're going to ring her. So all of us went out the back, put it on speaker to say, well, the manager said, guess what, we've got some news for you. This is the same day I think it was, wasn't it?
[00:52:19] Speaker A: And I think I'm going to cry.
[00:52:21] Speaker G: You know, and it was like we were all crying and. And she was just, you know, she had a house. Yeah. And we said, sorry, like, we breached confidentiality because we're all here listening to this conversation. But she was just. I don't care who listens. I'm so glad. Was so like, just. It's a Christmas miracle is what she said.
[00:52:41] Speaker F: Because it was.
[00:52:41] Speaker G: It was a week before Christmas. They were able. That our housing team were able to make two other calls or three other calls similar to that. So being able to be a part of that when was, you know, something that's just so rewarding, but it just doesn't happen often enough, you know.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: That's it for episode five of Voices from the Threshold.
Thank you to those people who shared their stories with us for this episode.
Remember, if you are seeking help for yourself or know someone who is, we've listed a number of searches services with their contact information in the show notes.
Episode six will be our final episode in this series. In it we will gather a number of suggestions, ideas and policies around affordable and social housing in the Bega Valley and speak with council staff, councillors, developers, support services and those working in organisations which are promising to deliver much needed affordable or social housing to the people of the valley. And we'll find out when this relief might be delivered. We look forward to having you along then.
This podcast has been produced by the Beaker Valley Shire Library Service in collaboration with Sapphire Stories, a local storytelling platform. It has been made possible with funds achieved through the New South Wales Premier's Departments Social Cohesion grants, local government as obtained by the Bega Valley Shire Council.
