By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey’s growing tide of homelessness has swelled well over 1000, according to the latest statistics.
There were about 1280 homeless in the municipality in the 2016 official Census period – up by 33 per cent from 2011 figures.
It soared by double the rate of Casey’s population, while at the same time Victoria’s homelessness rate remained steady.
“That is incredible,” says Keith Vethaak, who runs Transit Soup Kitchen in Narre Warren. If anything, the number would probably have grown since then, he says.
Each week, his kitchen provides groceries and hot meals to about 1400 people, including the homeless and an underclass just hanging on to their homes.
Ray Roberts, 57, dines at Transit. He and his hyper young dog Abby sleep on a single bed with blankets and an unzipped sleeping bag inside a van.
They move between car parks in Dandenong, Narre Warren and Pakenham, meeting other long-term car dwellers in the South-East.
“I regard myself as lucky, not even as homeless.
“I’m lucky because I wouldn’t want to sleep rough.”
He did that once in a Dandenong park about 20 years ago. He says he’d never do it again.
Yet by the figures, there must be many who do sleep rough in Casey.
Mr Roberts had boarded with a Doveton landlord. Overnight, he lost his shelter when the landlord died suddenly in bed.
He’d lost work as a fruit-and-veg courier and couldn’t afford the $400 weekly asking-price for a simple rental dwelling.
“You don’t take any notice (of the housing market).
“I appreciate that I’ll be driving around this country (in a mobile home) until I drop.”
He and Abby have been dependent on charities, while he trains in traffic worksite management.
Mr Vethaak says cost of living pressures are crushing people. The kitchen has recently introduced a meal-time for families with school-aged children.
“It all boils down to a shortage of affordable housing.”
Mr Vethaak says more elderly people are under housing stress, such as newly-widowed people whose household income halves with the loss of their partner.
“We’ve got a few old people who we are trying to pair with someone else.”
During a sit-down dinner on 19 March, about seven new faces joined scores of others for a feed – as well as a free shower, haircut and laundry service.
A young couple arrives with just 40 cents to their name and “nowhere else to go”, Mr Vethaak said.
He gets on a microphone and welcomes the diners.
“It’s not your fault,” he assures them.
“Our society is messed up.”
Transit diner Rob, 45, volunteers at the kitchen about three days a week.
“No one there judges you. You feel like a proper person for a while.”
While awaiting a WorkCover claim, he has slept in his car for the past 18 months.
His make-shift home is now broken down, and rests in a Narre Warren car park.
It has been broken into several times – with one attempt at stealing the pushbike in his car.
“Who would steal off someone who lives in their car?
“It’s like stealing candy from a baby.”
Rob receives $500 fortnightly Centrelink benefits without rent assistance. The payments would barely cover the cost of a share-house.
He is meanwhile paying off two personal loans to help out his adult kids.
He is grateful to the care and understanding of Narre Warren police and Centrelink staff. Police check on his welfare, offer help and don’t hassle him to move on.
Philosophically he says he has to bide the “process”.
“You try to think it doesn’t bother you but it does. You just try to keep positive.
“Whatever the difficulties I’m going through, there’s someone else worse.”
Another diner is Lisa, a disability support pensioner herself, who shelters four homeless people as well as six dogs and cats in her home.
She hopes to save up for an acreage in Gippsland and offer it as a homeless refuge.
“As a Christian, I just pray to ask God to bring the people you want to me.
“You have to have an open heart.”
