Men left out in cold: charities

Men are worst hit by Bunbury’s shortage of crisis accommodation, according the city’s service agencies.

Mothers and women are given priority access to the limited crisis accommodation available in the city.

Bunbury Salvation Army Corps officer Harriet Farquhar meets men who would travel to Perth to access crisis accommodation, but said many did not want to leave and risk losing access to their children.

Lt Farquhar said although the problem was not restricted to men they were often the ones she was unable to help.

She said single women and married couples did not fare much better.

Often the choice faced by homeless people was to take a bus or train to Perth or remain in Bunbury sleeping rough.

“In order to call the homelessness helpline you have to have a phone with credit on it, ” Lt Farquhar said.

“In order to get to Perth you need to figure out how you will afford to get there.

“If you have enough petrol you still need to pay for parking.

“Add on to that a level of potentially low literacy and potential addiction issues – it becomes really complex.”

Department of Housing commercial and business operations acting general manager Nigel Hindmarsh said the Department had no plan to build or buy more crisis accommodation in the South West.

He said crisis accommodation was available in Busselton and low-cost housing in Bunbury.

“The department supports the Mates Men’s Support Group in Busselton, ” Mr Hindmarsh said.

"Mates offers emergency accommodation and social support for men and leases a property from the Department of Housing for a peppercorn rent.

“The former Yanget House in Bunbury, now known as 25 Victoria Street, provides affordable accommodation for single men as well as access to training and employment opportunities.”

Intown Centre board chairman David Bailey said each week new people were visiting the centre and registering with no fixed address.

He said in the past three months 17 people, who were new visitors to the centre, reported they had no fixed address.

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