Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Dr. Paul Royce - Regional Leader of Mission Australia NT - on the organisation's efforts to support people sleeping rough during Covid

Transcript

Dr. Paul Royce - Regional Leader of Mission Australia NT - on the organisation's efforts to support people sleeping rough during Covid · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As I mentioned a short time ago, about this time
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: last Wednesday, we were speaking to the Northern Territory Police
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and speaking a little bit more about some of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: public drunkenness that we've seen around the place, people sleeping
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: rough around Darwin at the.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Moment, and we know that well.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Mission Australia provides a number of different support services in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: this space and joining us on the line to let
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: us know how things have been for them of late.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: It is the regional leader of Mission Australia here in
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Dr Paul Royce. Good morning to you, Paul.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: How are you? Yeah, really well, thanks so much for
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: your time this morning.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Paul. Firstly, for those out there listening who maybe aren't
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: aware of exactly what Mission Australia does, you do quite
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a bit of work, don't you, with people who are
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: sleeping rough and and don't have anywhere to stay and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: also that potentially have I suppose issues with when it
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: comes to alcohol. Yeah.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: So, Mission Australia provides a number of services across the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Northern Territory in Katherine Darwin and our brings A large
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: focus of our work is on supporting people who are
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: experiencing homelessness, both people who have alcohol and other drug issues,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: but also people suppose it's the hidden or the hidden
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: population that you don't necessarily see all the time as well.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: So we can provide levels of support across the range
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: for our population.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And Paul, we spoke to the Territory Police last week.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: They had said that we've got a really large number
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: of people in Darwin at the moment from communities, which
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: is probably why a lot of people have sort of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: seen more people sleeping raph around Darwin and also more
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of that drinking public drunkenness. How are things going from
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: your perspective? Have those services been more required than ever?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Yes. So one of the services that we have is
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: there to bring up shelter and that has the forty
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: bed capacity. So what we're finding is that normally that
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: facility will be full by two o'clock in the air
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: in the evening, and now we're seeing that that facility
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: full by that eight o'clock in the evening. So we've
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: had to put into restrictions as to when we can
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: actually take people into that facility that COVID related but
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: also to allow our staff to do a full deep
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: claim that facility, So we're taking people now from two
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: o'clock in the afternoon and we're finding that that's filling
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: up a lot quicker than me we we had in
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: the past. But we also work across a number of
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: other services. So our work with Yearly Lean Housing Oboriginal
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Corporation at Baton Road that provides short day accommodation for
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: people as well, and not just for rough sleepers, but
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: also to people who are coming in from community. We
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: need somewhere to sleep for the night so we're safe
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: and also get that support that required unless they are
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: experiencing issues with homelessness as well.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So it sounds like you guys are at capacity every.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Day, certainly without so bring up shelter. We are at
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: capacity and also some we had to have some limitations
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: with COVID as well because some of our staff have
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: been impacted by COVID and when our staff numbers go down,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: we can't take our full complement of people coming through.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: So yeah, but we are We work very hard in
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: our in the sector, as do a lot of organizations.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of organizations that are in the homelessness
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: and housing services and they're all pretty much at capacity
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: at the moment, and certainly the demand for housing services
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: doesn't go away. That's facial.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so from your perspective, why is that, you know,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: why are we at capacity at the moment?
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: It's interesting because I suppose we talk about homelessness when
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: there is greater levels of visibility, but actually homelessness never
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: goes away. I mean, if the numbers the street present people,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: if those numbers go down, reassume that there's no issue
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: with homelessness. But we still see significant numbers of people,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: for young people, for people leading violent relationships, there's not
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that much the options for them. So we know that
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: some of the services that support women who are experiencing
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: family violence are at capacity all the time. So, yeah,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: it's not just about the fact that we can see
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  Speaker 3: more people. We do have a homelessness issue that we
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: are experiencing all the time. And there's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: people who are sleeping in cars, who are CouchSurfing, who
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: are staying with family, and then we have to we
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: have to recognize that that's part of the homelessness issue
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And Paul, is that exasperated at the moment because of COVID.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: We recognize that it's harder for people to go back
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: to community. We know that the periods of isolation caused
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: significant impacts on families, people who were in dar and
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: at the time of isolation and lockdown. But yeah, we
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: recognize that it's a difficult time for everybody. And I
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: suppose this is just something else, another issue that impacts
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: on people who are experiencing homelessness or issues that they're
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: with homelessness.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, there's no doubt that you know that we obviously
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: need need more more accommodation when it comes to, you know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: to homelessness, there is no doubt about that. What about
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: when it comes to you know, the so bring up
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: shelter and there and the need for people to have
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: somewhere to go.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I must recognize that the work that we do,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: not just Mission Australia, but a range of other services
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  Speaker 3: do in supporting people who are rough sleeping. Larichie Nation
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: do a magnificent job with their with their night patrols,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: the police and to Police do a fantastic job as
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: well and bringing people into the sobering up shelter so
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: they've got somewhere safe and supported to sleep so that
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: in the morning they can make up and and have
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: a cup of tea, have a feed and and go
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: on with their with their day. So we certainly don't
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: we don't discriminate, We don't. We don't see anyone. We
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: just see people for for the value that they are
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: and that everyone needs that level of support and deserve
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: somewhere to sleep at nighttime and to feel safe.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh absolutely, And so then when it you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: when you do talk about the number of beds forty
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: at the Sobering Up Shelter, is that.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Enough for us?
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  Speaker 1: In the territories, is Mission Australia's facility the only one
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: where people can go to sober up.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Our facility is quite unique in that it's next to
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: a detox service which is run by Intehealth. There's our service,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: and there's also next to that is our We also
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: have a residential rehab treatment service. So it's really unique,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: not just in the Northern Territory but in Australia. Where
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: you've got a sobing up shelter, we can refer people
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: to the detox services. People want to consider giving up
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: or address issues of their alcohol and other drug use
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: and they can detox and then they can go into
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: a residential rehab service and that's all on the one side,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: and that is unique. Yeah, as I said, we have
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: forty beds, which is which is fantastic and does support
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: that that services is usually fall on a regular basis,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: on a nightly basis.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, right, I suppose what I'm getting what I'm
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: getting at is is do we need more whether they're
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: with Mission Australia or you know whoever, else, do we
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: do we need more? You know, more of those sobering
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: up beds?
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I think, well, people always find a way I made
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: to sleep. I know that if we had more beds,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: we would be we would certainly fill them, that's for sure.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: And I suppose that's a decision for the anti government.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: But yeah, but certainly we know that if we had
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: greater capacity, we would certainly have more people killing those
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: beds for sure.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It sounds like it's a really busy time for you
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: guys at the moment.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: Paul, always always busy, and our starts are amazing, Like
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: I can't hip my hat even more towards them because
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: they do it a great job day in day out.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so very much for your time this morning.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you're having a chat with us and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: no doubt we'll talk to you again in the near future.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: No worries, Patty, thank you,