By Jonty Ralphsmith
A South East homelessness organisation is encouraging people to seek support when they are in insecure housing or at risk of homelessness.
WAYSS is a support service that seeks to provide accommodation and other assistance to people experiencing homelessness, and its call comes ahead of National Homelessness Week which runs from 1-7 August.
“People can call-up our service and have a conversation with one of our workers, or come in to our service, and there is a program called ‘Ask Izzy’ which is a centralised app you can look at for emergency services,” CEO Wayne Merritt said.
“If people come to us, an intake worker will do an assessment and look at what we can provide people.”
The theme for 2022’s Homelessness Week is ‘we need a plan’ which fits in well with the holistic assistance WAYSS provide as a housing-support organisation.
WAYSS provides case-management, housing and rental support and provides 500 properties across the South East to people most in need.
There is currently a surge in demand for WAYSS’s service.
Rental stress is currently high with great competition for properties as inflation and cost-of-living bite.
17 per cent of the people that WAYSS assist are under 25, virtually prohibiting them from entering the rental market if they are on Centrelink payments.
The state government had been providing housing assistance throughout the pandemic but when that assistance finished in early 2022, there was a surge in people seeking help from WAYSS.
“There is a huge increase in people coming to our services especially since we’ve restarted face to face service delivery,” Mr Merritt said.
“Some days we have 50-60 people coming in seeking crisis accommodation and across Greater Dandenong.”
It comes as there are increasing reports of people seeing rough-sleeping in the streets of the municipality.
Mr Merritt highlighted that almost everyone who enters homelessness has a traumatic story and should not be stigmatised.
“Everyone has experienced trauma at different stages but some of the people we see sleeping rough haven’t had the support in place to move forward and that’s our role.”
“No-one chooses this pathway but it is our job to ensure they get back onto the pathway they choose.”
Reggie is one person who WAYSS has assisted – they attribute their difficulties to a lack of affordable housing and limited information on housing options
“I stayed in youth refuges, like WAYSS in Dandenong, as well as in a rehab centre for psychiatric conditions in Mont Albert,” they said.
“I also couch-surfed but I never allowed myself to sleep on the street – it was too frightening. I would drink coffee until morning and then go to Front Yard Youth services on King Street at dawn.
“I definitely fell through the cracks of the system, and there was no support for me once I left out of home care.”
Reggie acknowledges that there are more supports for care leavers now than when they were leaving the care system, but thinks there is more to be done, particularly to help care experienced young people with mental health problems, members of the LGBTQI+ community, or those from culturally diverse backgrounds to find housing and support services.
Access to affordable and adequate housing is a huge issue for many Australians, not least young people in precarious circumstances. In the year to December 2021, rents across Australia increased 9.4 per cent while wages grew just 2.3 per cent. In regional Australia, the squeeze has been tightest, with rents increasing 12.1 per cent in the same period.
WAYSS is a partner of the Dandenong Functional Zero program which started in July.
It aims to bring together housing, public health and policy-making organisations and council to ensure accountability and collaboration in addressing homelessness.
