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Canberra Today 14°/18° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Shelter sees a surge in homeless men

THE number of homeless men using Safe Shelter ACT for a place to sleep has more than doubled with 412 people using the facilities in the past nine weeks compared to 204 men who used them over the same period last year. 

Safe Shelter’s figures demonstrate that the ACT has a growing homeless population… Graph: Safe Shelter ACT.

The volunteer-run initiative, which provides emergency overnight shelter for adult men who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, has already had to turn away six men, one woman and a mother with two children over the past nine weeks. 

This is because the Safe Shelter ACT locations, at All Saints Anglican Church, Ainslie, Sundays and Mondays, St Columba’s Uniting Church, Braddon, Tuesdays to Thursdays, and the Salvation Army Canberra City Corps, Fridays and Saturdays, has been full or almost full on most nights, according to Safe Shelter ACT.

Safe Shelter ACT says there’s been reports from different sources, including from homeless men themselves, that some will not go to some of the available supportive accommodation services. Safety is one reason that has been given but there are several probably inter-related issues too. 

A spokesperson for Safe Shelter ACT says these issues need to be investigated so steps can be taken to correct them. 

Of the 49 individual homeless men who have been accommodated this year, 37 have stayed for less than a week, which Safe Shelter ACT says suggests that more than 75 per cent of the men have found a pathway out of their situation.

Of men who have stayed more than a week (some more than a month), Safe Shelter ACT says five seem to be refugees or asylum seekers, who may not be eligible for any Government services and for whom Safe Shelter is their only available refuge. The remaining seven appear to be “locals”. 

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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