ST Vincent de Paul Society Queensland has launched its Christmas Appeal against a backdrop of deepening crisis for the ever-growing group of “working poor families” throughout the state.
Leaders of the society in the state’s south-east have spoken of greater numbers than ever before of such families seeking assistance, with many forced to live in crowded conditions with relatives or even in cars.
Leaders describe “an impossible situation” where rent alone can take up to 70 per cent of a family’s income and power bills can be up to $600 a quarter for a family with one or two children.
Rising interest rates have also added to these pressures, often causing families to fracture and with their children sometimes turning to crime as a result.
In the past financial year, the society provided a record $7.3 million in direct financial assistance helping more than 135,000 Queenslanders in crisis.
It has set a target of $750,000 which it hopes to raise across the state during the festive season.
State president Brian Moore said “at Vinnies, the people we are helping are mostly young families who are low-income earners and doing their absolute best to keep their heads above water”.
Toowoomba diocesan central council president Kev Byrne said that, for the first time in his 15 years with the St Vincent de Paul Society in the south-west region, he had started to see significant numbers of poor working families applying for assistance.
Gold Coast/country diocesan central council president Jim Donaldson said it was unjust that increasing numbers of the working poor were struggling to survive, given the region could not function without low-paid workers in such areas as retail and hospitality.
Mr Moore, despite having been an ambulance officer and superintendent for 38 years, said some of the suffering he encountered as a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society still haunted him.
“I remember visiting a young father and his 18-month-old and three-year-old children,” he said.
“The mother had left the family.
“They were living in an old truck on a creek bank twenty-five kilometres out of Brisbane.
“The poor little three-year-old had her hands in a bowl of sugar and black ants were crawling up her arms …”
Mr Moore, who has been a society member for more than 40 years, said the situation for working families was the worst he could recall.
“It looks as though Australia’s heading for a similar situation to the US where increasing numbers of homes are repossessed from people no longer able to afford mortgages.
“Rents have gone sky high as well with some areas more affected than others.
“What happens to people on low wages working in, say, retail in places linked to mining like Mackay where rents are enormous?
“Rental in places like Moranbah can be $1000 a week and more just for ordinary houses.”
Mr Byrne said a similar situation was occurring in the south-west.
“Some families are being forced out of their homes because they are unable to afford rent – especially in areas affected by mining such as Dalby, Chinchilla and other western towns,” he said.
“So they’re living on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis with family, if they are fortunate enough to have extended family.
“Assistance requirements for these families are also more complex and challenging because they have more needs.”
For Mr Donaldson, the Beaudesert Food Division, founded by Brian Moore in 1984, is one sign of hope amid the crisis. The outlet stores food for hampers delivered to homes visited as far north as Caboolture, north of Brisbane, and provides cheap grocery items for those struggling to keep up.
“The society mightn’t always be able to give financial help with power bills but at least we shouldn’t ever run out of food,” he said.
“This is thanks to a lot of generosity from bakeries, food manufacturers and other businesses.”
Mr Donaldson, who has been with the society on the Gold Coast for 25 years with 16 of those involved in crisis housing programs, said the situation in the region was the worst he had ever seen.
“We’re seeing a lot more ‘track travellers’ – families living in cars – turning up at our Gold Coast centres,” he said.
“Such families will often fracture and finally fall apart under the stress.
“Fourteen to nineteen-year-old young people top the list for crime nowadays and a lot of these will be offspring from these crisis families.”
Long-term solutions to the crisis are unclear.
“Education for parenting has got to be done,” Mr Donaldson said.
“By and large though, you just do the best you can to help.”
The St Vincent de Paul Society this year made another significant advance in this direction with the innovative Families Back on Track complex on the Gold Coast, designed to support single-parent families at risk of homelessness.
