By Matthew Pearce
The Emu Park Knitters and Knotters were among those pitching in to help the homeless at Rockhampton Regional Council and Roseberry Qld’s Homeless Connect event on Thursday, 18 May.
Debbie Ciesiolka said Homeless Connect was the major charity supported by the Emu Park Knitters and Knotters, with members on hand at the Robert Schwarten Pavilion to give away brightly coloured knitted items including beanies, jumpers, scarves and blankets in all sizes from babies to adults.
The group of about 12 to 15 members gets together every Friday morning at the Emu Park RSL where they knit and “solve the problems of the world”.
“We go all year round and don’t stop for anything,” Debbie said.
Much of the wool used by the Knitters and Knotters is donated, which people drop off to the RSL.
Rockhampton Regional Council Communities and Heritage Councillor Drew Wickerson said up to 400 people had attended Homeless Connect to seek support from the 30 agencies in attendance, including Anglicare, the Salvation Army and Multicultural Australia.
“The aim is to make it a one-stop shop, not only for people who are homeless, but those who are vulnerable in other ways,” he said.
“You may have somewhere to stay but are having trouble getting clothes for your kids or lunch to send them off to school with.”
Cr Wickerson said he expected the situation to only get worse as the cost of living increases.
He said the numbers of people seeking help at Homeless Connect were “sneaking back up” following a drop after Covid. following the council’s efforts to promote the event more broadly.
The 2021 Census reported 122,494 homeless people in Australia on Census night.
Of those, 527 were in Rockhampton, 290 in Gladstone and 202 in the Central Highlands, with this number underrepresented due to the inability to capture transient individuals.
Of those homeless individuals, 23 per cent are young people between 12 and 24 years of age.
Australia wide, the homelessness figure rose by 5.2 per cent since the previous census in 2016. The estimated increase in Central Queensland is 29 per cent.
Roseberry Qld housing and homelessness supervisor Fabian Webber said the situation was “absolutely crazy” at the moment.
“Covid was the fire that lit it all and it escalated from there… the number of people we’re seeing come for us for assistance has drastically increased,” he said.
Roseberry Qld operates a Dignity Hub in Gladstone and Youth Homeless Shelters in Rockhampton and Gladstone which are operating at full capacity.
“Our shelters have six beds each but we’re running about 15 to 16 inquiries every week,” he said.
Over the past year, Roseberry Qld has provided 8564 bednights to young people aged 16 to 25 in Rockhampton and Gladstone in their youth shelters and Crisis Accommodation Program (CAP).
Of those young people assisted by Roseberry Qld, 70 per cent left home due to family violence, child abuse or family breakdown.
Mr Webber said working families were among the ranks of the homeless.
“The cohort of people who were homeless five years ago is quite different to the people who are homeless today,” he said.
“Now we’re looking at families with two jobs who are still homeless because they can’t afford private rentals even on double incomes.”
He said there had been a huge increase in street sleepers, as well as “couch surfers”.
“Youth homelessness is definitely something that is under the radar… you don’t see young people on the streets because they’re couch surfing.”
Tanya Mitchell from Darumbal Community Youth Service said she had also seen homelessness getting worse in recent years.
She said there was a full house at Darumbal Community Youth Service’s Budaroo House youth homeless shelter, which can house six people at a time.
“Most referrals have been from females, and we have all females staying at Budaroo House at the moment,” she said.
Cr Wickerson said he would like to thank everyone who made the event possible, including the various agencies and the council team, as well as those who donated food and clothing.