Earlier this year, a Year 12 student asked me if he could tag along for one of our weekly Breakfast Patrols in the city so that he could put together a portfolio of photographs of homeless people living on the streets. I’m not a fan of ‘poverty tourism’ but on this occasion, the request was accepted because I think he will have a story to tell.

I have come to know many of these people on a first-name basis and they know all the team leaders and volunteers who have been serving them breakfast every weekend since mid-2020. As expected, there was no shortage of smiling faces for the portfolio and along with that came the usual banter and stories that make these patrols so worthwhile. I have often asked myself "What could we do to give these people back their livelihoods?", "Why don’t they just sign up to get a job at Centrelink?", "Aren’t they sick and tired of sleeping on pavements and eating the same food that is given to them day in and day out?", "Aren’t they tired of starvation, the cold, the heat, the physical and verbal abuse and the hard floors?"

The solution is not as simple as one would think. It never is. On one morning a young patrol officer took an interest in what we were doing. He too, asked the same question "There are so many jobs, why can’t they apply for them?"

The people I see have fallen through the cracks because they have been abandoned. There is no cure for abandonment except belonging. Everything else is just a band-aid to help them get through another day. But band-aids are important!

Getting them to a point of even wanting to work, after possibly years of rejection, depression, anxiety or low self-esteem is simply not possible. When you add the comfort they find in alcohol and drugs (not always), they often wake up to days that are just a blur and it gets worse after that. Then, in a moment of sobriety when they do feel like taking control of their lives, they find they have no paper-work, no resumes, no clean clothes to wear to an interview, no transport and no-one to remind them about appointments. Adding to that, a possible criminal record (30% of people leaving prisons are frictionally homeless for months) or a mental illness, makes some people practically unemployable. And finally, in 2022, we are seeing more people who cannot afford to put food on the table for themselves and their children or pay their rent. They take to the streets because they have no choice. They may be waiting for their first Centrelink payment or their next pay cheque. For the many I speak to, it’s the waiting that’s killing them!

Many people will rely on the charity of others this winter and beyond.

Our Aquinas College community has been incredibly generous with its Winter and Advent appeals. Even during the lockdowns, people brought their donations via the drive-thru program. I want you to know that your donations make a difference! There are so many ways to help and so many ways we can help others feel like they belong somewhere.

John Richards
Director of Christian Service-Learning