THE St Vincent de Paul Society in Queensland is urgently seeking don-ations to help put a roof over the heads of families who are homeless.
The society’s Gold Coast Central Council president Mervyn Powell said work was well underway on the organisation’s $8 million Australian-first homeless facility and services centre on the Gold Coast but urgent help was needed to complete the project.
Mr Powell said the “Families Back on Track” project involved 28 units and a two-storey support centre facility at Arundel that would accommodate single parents with children and homeless families with children.
He said the program extended beyond just providing accommodation.
“The significance of the program is that it does not just house a large number of families with nowhere else to go – up to 108 people – but it also offers a range of programs to ensure those living there receive the necessary skills and support to break the cycle of homelessness,” Mr Powell said.
He said families became homeless generally as the result of a crisis.
“The people we help will invariably come to us as a result of a crisis in their lives and sometimes, it’s just the chance to get back on their feet that is what they are looking for,” he said.
“It’s a tragic reality that on any given night on the Gold Coast, up to 15 families may be sleeping in cars, stranger’s lounge rooms or outside in the elements.”
St Vincent de Paul Society Gold Coast and Country area manager John Goodwin said the project would fill a much-needed gap in services for the homeless.
“Families really are not well catered for,” he said.
“I have (been told) they turn away between 50 and 60 families a month at (an emergency accommodation facility on the Gold Coast).
“Our Vincentians are dealing with it on a daily basis.”
Mr Powell said construction of the facility should be completed later this year but money was urgently needed for the fit-out of the units.
“As little as less than $10,000 will fit-out our community service training kitchen, (where we) will teach the residents basic, yet important life skills,” he said.
“(Then) $16,600 will completely fit-out one household, while less than $2000 will provide adequate window fittings, like venetian blinds.
“It all adds up. We’re so close to being able to help people in crisis with this facility, but without the generous support of the public, we may still not bring our dream to reality.”
Mr Goodwin, who recently attended a two-day conference on homelessness in Brisbane said one of the most important points of the conference were that the homeless should be treated with respect, that accommodation was important to them and that quality accommodation was important to them.
He said one homelessness project in Port-land, Oregon, in the United States was recording a 70 per cent reduction in chronic homelessness.
“There are a lot of things happening in homelessness at the moment at both the local government, state and not-for-profit level,” Mr Goodwin said.
“This project is only part of a whole range of things we’ve recognised down here.”
Mr Powell urged anyone who wishing to donate financial support for furnishings, curtains, landscaping and other final trimmings to the Families Back on Track project do so online at www.vinnies.org.au or by phoning (07) 3010 1072.
