One volunteer, working on the front lines to help Wagga’s homeless residents, says numbers are growing.
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It comes as census data revealed the number of residents living it rough had risen almost five per cent across the country.
Uniting Church member Phil Sheather said the city had not escaped the nation-wide spike.
He said the the first six months of 2018 had been the Drop-In Centre’s busiest in seven years.
According to the Bureau of Statistics, the rate of homelessness in Australia rose 4.6 per cent to 116,000 in 2016.
NSW also recorded the largest spike in homelessness nationally, with a jump from more than 28,000 in 2011 to more than 37,700 in 2016.
While the number of homeless in the Wagga Local Government Area appeared to decreased from 154 to 107 across that same time period, Mr Sheather’s first-hand account painted a picture more grim.
Everything they own is wrapped up in the swag they carry around.
- Phil Sheather
As the church’s Drop-In Centre coordinator, Mr Sheather said he could count more than ten residents he knew were sleeping rough across the city, but it was those he didn’t see that was troubling.
For more than a decade the 84-year-old has volunteered on the front lines of the homelessness front, providing food and a friendly face to the city’s vulnerable.
“Everything they own is wrapped up in a swag they carry around,” he said. “They just live day to day.”
He said the widening economic gap between the rich and poor certainly played a part, but the reason behind an individuals need to live on the streets often varied.
“A lot of people are reluctant to tell you about their situation,” Mr Sheather said. “So they don’t come in.”
He said pride often played a big part in being able and willing to ask for help.
“We’ve been busier this year than ever,” Mr Sheather said.
“That’s just people we see … I have no doubt there are more than that.”
The sentiment was shared by Saint Vincent de Paul regional president Joanne Crowley, who said she knew of ten clients sleeping rough across the city.
“You notice it more in the summer because they are out,” Ms Crowley said. “In winter they stay huddled under the bridge.”
Both Mr Sheather and Ms Crowley said they wished there was more to give the city’s poverty-stricken.
With donations always welcome, they said a definitive answer to the rising homelessness issue may not be as easy to find.
