LEE Shackle never thought he could be homeless, until he was.
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It’s a reality facing some 146 people in Goulburn and Yass each night, according to the latest census data.
Mr Shackle was born in London, his accent all but lost over the years.
At 14, his family migrated to Melbourne for a new life down under. He spent ten years in Melbourne before moving to Darwin and, in 1976, Goulburn.
It was in 2012, at 58 years of age, that bad luck struck and his life reached a tipping point.
In his words: “I had to be out of the house, all my gear was going to storage and I was looking at sleeping in my car”.
In the months prior, Mr Shackle had lost his job as the business he worked for filed for bankruptcy and closed. He was living alone in Marulan, the result of a relationship breakdown.
A string of medical issues, brought on by years of smoking and diabetes, saw him regularly travel to and from Sydney for operations and appointments.
He took out his superannuation to cover bills, rent and medical expenses and, when the home he was renting was put on the market for sale, Mr Shackle feared the worst.
“I had to be out of the house, all my gear was going to storage and I was looking at sleeping in my car..."
- Lee Shackle
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, basically. I had no money and I didn’t know where I could go or how to get a bond together,” he said.
“I was going to park the car near someone’s driveway and that would have been it… or thrown an air bed in someone’s lounge room and whatever, wherever I could find.”
He recalled feeling despair and suicidal on the days he spent walking around Goulburn, knocking on doors to ask for help.
“I spent months looking for houses and places to stay. It is really difficult. If you are, like I am, prone to depression, it’s a killer,” he said.
“People don’t understand it… a single bloke who leaves his house for the wife and kids so they are alright and all the stuff you have to go through, and the weight of not knowing, it’s wrong.”
He said he received little assistance from the first door he knocked on - Centrelink.
“They are the first people I asked if I could get an emergency payment to cover a bond or whatever, and they looked at my file and said ‘no, sorry’. They don’t tell you that you can go here, or there, or anything,” he said.
Someone had mentioned in passing that Mission Australia might be able to help and, alongside Richmond Fellowship, “they pretty much took it over from there”.
He was given a bed in emergency housing at Kenmore, a facility run in partnership with the Mission Australia, Argyle Community Housing and Housing NSW that no longer exists due to funding restraints.
“Mission were only just starting to use Kenmore at that stage and I think I was one of the first ones there. It came about just at the right time, as did this place,” he said, gesturing around his living room.
It was during his four month stay in one of the bedsit units that he kicked his toe.
His lower leg was removed on May 19 that year after doctors discovered gangrene.
By the time he had finished rehabilitation, a property (complete with wheelchair ramp) had become available to him through NSW Housing’s priority placement program.
He was one of the lucky ones.
As of June 30 2015, there were 285 people on the waiting list for a housing property in Goulburn - 16 of which were flagged as priority.
Expected waiting time for general applicants was estimated between five and ten years for one of the 704 properties in the area.
Moving forward
Four years on, Mr Shackle continues to live in that same small, warm house with a wheel chair ramp.
It’s just he and his dog, Django.
“I found the right people. On my own I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I wouldn’t have known where to go,” he said.
“Many of the problems people have is not knowing where to get help, and the agencies that can help aren’t funded enough to support everyone.”
He shared with the Post two key strategies he thought would help reduce homelessness in the area.
The first: build more houses.
“I would like the Government to build more houses for the Department of Housing,” Mr Shackle said.
“It will create employment, it will give people homes and would also help the economy because the people employed to build the houses would go out and spend money.
“If they had houses out there… you would get a lot of people off the streets and at least give them a roof over their head. As far as I can see, that’s a simple solution. The government just needs to throw some money at it.”
The second strategy: increase access to information and support for charity organisations on the frontline.
“Make the information more accessible for people as to what help there is available for them. St Vincent's, Mission, Smith Family and all those organisations do a wonderful job but the government keep cutting back their funding so they can do less and less.”
On any given night, over 100,000 Australians are homeless, including 44,000 children and young people. Each year, more than 200,000 people seek help from homelessness services.
In 2014-15, homelessness services had to turn away over 230 people each day without the support or accommodation they needed.
“We can halve homelessness because we know what needs to be done. But it requires strong leadership, a commitment from all governments to increase funding and to guarantee it over the next five years..."
- Catherine Yeomans, Mission Australia CEO
Mission Australia, Anglicare, the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, UnitingCare Australia and Wesley Mission last month penned a joint letter to the four federal party leaders demanding a commitment to halve homelessness by 2025.
They’ve urged each party to expand prevention and early intervention services in their policy framework, a move that would lend crucial support to people faced with bad luck and little access to affordable housing, like Mr Shackle.
Mission Australia CEO Catherine Yeomans said homelessness would continue to rise if not made an election campaign priority.
“In a prosperous nation like Australia, there are adequate resources to ensure everyone has a home. Yet we have unacceptably high, and growing, rates of homelessness,” Ms Yeomans said.
“We know what works to fix homelessness. Prevent people in high risk groups from becoming homeless, fund evidence-based programs for people who are already homeless and ensure enough homes for people on low incomes.
“We can halve homelessness because we know what needs to be done. But it requires strong leadership, a commitment from all governments to increase funding and to guarantee it over the next five years.”