Raising awareness on the streets of Geelong

TWO Outpost board members have spent a week living on the streets of Geelong, raising awareness for homelessness in the region.

Outpost Chair Amy Flint and board member Maggie O’Neill left home on November 3, with just the clothes on their backs, and returned on Sunday.

Ms Flint said part of the experience was gaining an understanding of the people behind the faces, with the aim of being as immersive as possible throughout the week.

“We’re endeavouring to give a voice to the people that don’t have an opportunity to do that.

“However, we’re also mindful that we don’t have some of the struggles that the people on the streets do have such as domestic violence, mental health and drug use.”

As part of their ‘Week on the Streets’, their rules included not being able to use support services unless told by somebody in the community.

Each morning their day started by heading out to Christ Church, which provide a free breakfast seven days a week, and went through until 9.30pm where they went to the Outpost for dinner.

“The service providers are literally keeping our homeless community alive,” Ms Flint said.

“They’re feeding them and through food provision or day services, they are reducing crime and ultimately supporting our community where rough sleeping accommodation is non-existent.”

Throughout the week they have been welcomed into the homeless community, learning about the resilience and strength of the individuals, how much they look after each other and what they achieve as a community.

By interacting and getting to know them, the pair have also been able to gain an insight into what they are dealing with.

Ms Flint said in the first few days, they discovered the lack of services within the community, finding it hard to get water with lots of taps missing their tops and toilets shutting at 9.30pm.

One of the most challenging things for the board members was finding somewhere safe and secure to sleep each night, taking into consideration that although the city has cameras and is well lit, it means they can be seen, making them vulnerable.

These factors prompted them to go into the outskirts and led them to Kardinia Park, where they slept in the grandstand.

“The thought patterns in our mind was to get somewhere high, so you can see what’s going on, get somewhere with shelter, in case it rains and that there is an escape route in case we have to go,” Ms Flint said.

“We liked Kardinia Park because no one was around, it had security cameras because it’s a really big thing and it had roaming security guards.”

Once the pair’s location was made public, they began the search all over again, walking about 20,000 steps each day.

Following “Week on the Streets”, Ms Flint and Ms O’Neill will compile their experience, providing recommendations where they would like to see improvements and advocating for change.