Albany homeless struggle in winter

There are more homeless people in Albany with every passing year and a difficult economy coupled with an increasing population and a shortage of low-cost housing means the issue shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Albany crisis care and counselling providers agree the homelessness problem has become much worse in recent years, but warned there was no easy solution to the multi-faceted, fraught issue.

Albany’s newest winter crisis accommodation provider, Shalom House, started operating for the first time in its new premises this month, and has been used every night since.

Shalom is a privately funded initiative supported by members of the Free Reformed Churches of Albany and offers men crisis accommodation.

Last year the group operated the men’s shelter previously run by the Regional Counselling and Mentoring Service as part of a transition to Shalom’s new full-time premises at 320 Albany Highway.

Shalom co-ordinator Leah Eilander said last winter at least 26 men had used the old facility.

“We’ve got a bit of a record from the past couple of years and homelessness is definitely on the rise,” she said.

Shalom intends to widen its services to provide education and training to at-risk people in the future, if funding and volunteer numbers allow.

Regional Counselling and Mentoring Service manager Geoff Bales said he was grateful to Shalom for taking over the men’s shelter.

Mr Bales said the problem had appeared to deteriorate in recent years, but the perceived increase in homelessness could be partly put down to increasing societal awareness of the issue.

“I think people are putting their hand up more,” he said.

“It’s hard to measure what is an actual increase and what is a greater awareness.”

Mr Bales said year-round crisis shelters in Albany, including possibly a facility designed for homeless women, would go some way to assisting the problem but would not target the root causes of homelessness.

“I think the crux of it really is some of the reasons why people are homeless,” he said.

“I think one of the problems is we treat homelessness as a curable thing and it’s not; I think we need to get some acceptance around the fact these people need our help and we need to put supports in place so they can get out of that predicament.

“Women are huge concern as well, because at the moment there is a shelter for women that are experiencing domestic violence but there is no actual shelter for homeless women.

“That is an unmet need in the community.”

The Men’s Resource Centre’s Grant Westthorp said homelessness could affect anybody and had become more visible in Albany in recent times.

“Suddenly it is more in your face now, and that shows that the problem has really arrived,” he said.

“No one has got a solution to the problem, and it is going to get bigger because our population is growing, and a certain percentage will always be homeless.”

Mr Westthorp said Shalom provided an important service in winter but there was demand all year round.

“We find that constantly we have people coming in any month of the year looking for a roof over their heads,” he said.

“Homeswest do the best they can but there is not a lot of low-cost housing where they can get into a house quickly, it’s more like two or three months.”

Albany Youth Support Association manager Julie Yusop said the group’s youth crisis accommodation centre Young House had been running at capacity the past few years.

“We have had to turn young people away,” she said.

“There is really no one-size-fits-all solution to homelessness; I think we need to address the underlying issues but also look at more affordable long-term secure housing options, particularly for our young people.”