By Di Stanley, Emerald Today
As night-time temperatures start to plummet into single figures, there’s tents dotted in bushland around the Nogoa River, on the edge of a rural dam, in backyards in town.
In darkness, camper trailers and cars are parked up in streets; all now a ‘home’ for those who can’t afford a roof over their heads.
The Emerald Neighbourhood Centre is coming to the aid of an increasing number of socially and economically disadvantaged people, of all ages, who are doing it tough, and rough, in and around Emerald.
ENC director Jeanelle Horn admits “we’re in a pickle” as she points to a perfect storm of the cost-of-living crisis, lack of affordable housing and emergency accommodation in the region and the mental health fallout from it.
“We’ve had single parents and little children… to having elderly people, so it’s all ages, there’s no discrepancies about who ends up in tents,” Ms Horn told Emerald Today.
“We get people from interstate, we have local people, we have regional people, we have people passing through that end up in a debacle.
“All we can do is work through what people’s needs are, ask what their support networks are like and if they’re able to get back to family, we will assist them with transport.
“If they have absolutely zip and they don’t have the financial capacity to rent or capacity to be employed at this time… we don’t have the funds for ongoing housing in motels.
“So, the next best option we have is to get them a tent and bedding or a referral to hospital, shelters.”
Ms Horn, who works closely with ENC Emergency Relief Coordinator Ebony Richards and Community Connect Coordinator Nathan Mahoney on creative solutions to the demand for their services, said they link with other agencies and charitable organisations to find accommodation in a wide arc from Rockhampton to Mackay.
Federally funded mental health programs are run in a safe and inclusive safe at the centre.
On a local level, the demand for emergency relief – food hampers, fuel vouchers, essentials like diapers and baby wipes – is ever increasing, but Ms Horn said now, Emerald residents are coming forward for help to pay their rates and electricity bills.
The centre’s food pantry – supported by local the Woolworths and Coles supermarkets, Fairbairn Bakery and others – is stocked every morning. Within hours, its shelves are picked bare, and not just by locals. Ms Horn said pantry order supply families in rural regions of the Central Highlands.
“It is really tough, and we just reflect on people who are employed, even like ourselves, noticing the cost-of-living jumping so much and even if you are fortunate enough to have your own home, people are struggling with rates and water bills – there just seems to be an endless increase of a lot of things,” she said.
“We are surprised that we have had people approach us for help with the rates because they can’t keep going and they’re fearful of the banks taking their homes.
“People are really struggling to afford their own medications or even attend medical appointments and this is when they have really significant issues happening.
“We’re helping them get to appointments because otherwise they would just find it really challenging.”
For as much as the ENC attempts to generate a positive outcome for everyone who comes through its doors, Ms Horn said it was important to remember the organisation had to fundraise for staff salaries due to a shortfall in government funding and was heavily reliant on volunteers.
“There’s a lot of things that impact on us all every day, but our whole aim here is to look at people’s circumstances in a holistic way and do the absolute best we possibly can,” she said.
“Things can change so quickly in people’s lives and it has a domino effect.
“Things will often, not always, often go downhill very quickly.
“At the moment, we’re all on deck trying to fulfill the needs we hear and network with whomever we can to try and get the best outcomes for our clients.”