| Adelaide Homeless Gossip is archived by the National Library of Australia Home Homeless Hot Gossip 10 Latest 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Oldest Fan Mail Send your latest insights to [email protected] Messages posted from 16 August, 2008 to present The most recent message appears at the top. Updated 27 December 2008 New technology to help Street-to-home can locate homeless people in parklands The clash of the titans Two big names appeared on Christmas Day at Byron Place Community Centre. Ralph Clarke and Howard Williams both contested the last Adelaide City Council elections. Ralph won a position and Howard missed out. Ralph wore a huge yellow shirt and handing out business cards. Howard challenged him with a huge Christmas hat made from stapling two hats together then circling them with tinsel. Howard also carried a mysterious box like a suicide bomber. He pressed a button and up jumped up a red puppet singing a song and sang a song. Ralph felt severely outclassed and nervously looked over his shoulder in case "Media Mike" had planted an assassin in the crowd. Ralph also made the fatal mistake of not arriving before the food was served. He should have copied the ploys of veteran political campaigners like Jane Lomax-Smith, MP and Peter Bicknel, CEO of Uniting Care Wesley Port Adelaide. They turn up at gatherings uninvited then hang around the kitchen merging with the staff bringing out food. They stand in front of the tables pretending availability of the food is somehow connected with their presence. Jane particularly disturbs people with her rat-like face while with Peter you don't know whether he's smiling at you with his good eye or his glass eye. Howard Williams is still deciding if he'll nominate at the next election. 27 December 2008 Bill attacked at WestCare A thug king hit Old Bill from Austria at WestCare. Police and ambulance were called and Bill was treated but wouldn't make a formal police complaint. He's become increasingly fragile in recent years and is afraid of repercussions. 27 December 2008 No water at St Lukes Christmas meal The executive director of Space Intelligence Masters was disappointed that St Lukes didn't provide water at their Christmas meal. He said the fizzy drinks they served are poison. He also thinks they killed a friend who even drank the stuff even as she was dying. The food was great though: two huge snappers, prawns, tabouli, meat, ice-cream, cheesecake, ginger beer, all in surplus. There wasn't any yelling or fighting except for an argument between "R" and me about whether the British were fuelling the tribal wars in the Congo with weapons and money, or not. The good thing about St Lukes is they don't piss you off after an hour or so. We stayed there for over three hours. Staff wrapped bowls of food with clear plastic and didn't throw it away like last year. Numbers were much down from last year. No coffee, either, but still a wonderful event where I met so many allies and friends from the past. 27 December 2008 Grease dripping off elbows Jayne, the cook at WestCare had warm grease dripping off her elbows. Staff roasted pork for their two-dollar lunch. Jayne cut off the crackling, whacked it in the oven then later ate huge chunks of pure animal fat that dripped down her upraised arms and off her elbow onto the floor, according to one informant. 27 December 2008 John the Baptist "John the Baptist", as he is known, works at WestCare. He's been seen over the last week walking around with a huge backpack. The ghost-who-walks and PJ wondered if he was sleeping rough. "John the Baptist" silently inspires others with his faith, instils his faith into a group anonymously. But flattery affects him not and he says we should face the Lord who is everything, and not face each other. 27 December 2008 Port Augusta Transit Camp Stop Phoning Me The well kept receptionist turns from me and reaches under the counter for her ringing mobile phone. After listening to the caller she interupts: "I'm tired of your calls. I work for a charity myself. Take me off your list." Next to us we hear the roar of her 15 colleagues, all wearing headsets and sitting in front of computers, systematically phoning ever person in the Adelaide phone book. They're cadging donations to fund, amongst other things, the salary of the receptionist. The receptionist tries to smile as I pay my annual membership fee. They need financial members so they can show the government they're big enough to warrant government funding. Meanwhile, fifteen of the organisation's twenty employees spend their working hours annoying everyone in Adelaide listed in the telephone book. Other employees of the organisation, previously employed to help disabled people, find themselves on different battle lines. An interstate disability group with a similar name is trying to expand into South Australia so this organisation is countering the attack by trying to expand interstate. 23 December 2008 Christmas Warning When going to bed at night don�t smell the back of your trousers. Don't say you weren't warned. 23 December 2008 Free funerals for the "homeless" (SNUFFING IT ON THE CHEAP) The state government will provide a cheap dignified funeral for those who die providing they pass from this world with less than $3000 in the bank and also that their mothers and fathers, partners, and children are all stone broke with less than $3000 each in the bank. They must all be on Centrelink income for some reason. Yvonne, from the South Australian government's funeral information hotline said it's a "simple dignified funeral which we have under contract with a certain funeral parlour, a simple dignified cremation." It doesn't include flowers or transport for the relatives or drinks and nibbles at the Wake. The body is cremated. 22 December 2008 Fearless Crusader "Michael has called in from Adelaide to ask is the overcrowding in prisons and a decline in homelessness linked, that is, we're simply putting more people in prisons." David Bevan on 17 December 2008 speaking to Monsignor Land Broker David Cappo on ABC Radio 5AN. Cappo denied it any linkage. Bevan also asked David Cappo about the State Treasurer Kevin Foley's comment on over crowded prisons: "Rack 'em, stack'em and pack 'em." Monsignor Cappo fearlessly responded: "Well, it's certainly not, ah, not a social justice approach�well, I haven't spoken to him about prisons, but I, I do know, ah, im, uh, from conversations I've had with him that the Treasurer is sensitive to the issues that I'm dealing with." 18 December 2008 Any suicide attempts? Question 6b of the Common Ground Housing application form says: "Please give details of any mental health problems you have now or have had in the past. This could include, for example, depression, anxiety, being paranoid, self-harm or suicide attempts." The application form contains a whole blank page dedicated for expansion on this and other questions. Question 9b of the same application form says: "Customer Consent to Exchange Information (to be completed by the applicant) I �����������������. Of ����������������� Hereby give permission for a staff member of Common Ground Adelaide Ltd to contact the above named people - [that is, all the names of other people you've given in answer to other questions on the form] - I understand this information will be used to assess my need for housing and to confirm any special housing requirements that I have and that it may be used by Common Ground Adelaide for statistical purposes. In addition, I give permission for Common Ground Adelaide to exchange information with the agency(ies)/person(s) listed above concerning the outcome of my housing assessment including the address of any property allocated to me and the tenancy start date. I understand that this consent is valid for the duration of my involvement with Common Ground Adelaide, unless I terminate the agreement beforehand. Signature: ��������� Date: ��������� 15 December 2008 Social Inclusion and other crooked deals Jennifer Rankine, the new Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust recently hired a consultant, Margaret Wagstaff to help with her work load. Wagstaff was paid $225 an hour from government revenue and her contract was not put out to tender as is the normal process. Wagstaff is on the Social Inclusion Board headed by Monsignor Land Broker David Cappo, himself recently involved in a sleazy deal where his church got some property from the government a million or so dollars below market value. Cappo was recently caught promoting a dishonest �Homeless Count� claiming the numbers of those living outside in Adelaide were much down. None of the above are accountable to anyone. 11 December 2008 If the bad �homeless� aren�t welcome then where do they go? "No one has robbed the place yet. It's totally different than it used to be. You'd have to go through the same process as everyone else. You can't just walk in like before. You've got to be referred then you've got to sit in on an interview so it's not like we just take anyone anymore. Those days are over, thank goodness." Cameron, employee at Afton House (The Terraces) 11 December 2008 Suspected Forger An employee at Afton House (The Terraces) won't send me an application form for housing because he said he didn't have any stamps. Then he changed his story saying I might forge a social worker's signature on the form. Then he said he would pass the request to Head Office because they had some stamps. All I did was ask for him to post me an application form because my mobility is restricted due to arthritis. Afton House forces people to get referrals from social workers at Hutt Street Centre to "show you're keen". But that place is crawling with crims, drug dealers and Hep A, B and C. And why treat people with respect when you can treat them with suspicion? 9 December 2008 Old man finally gets educated The man in his mid-seventies told me last week he was finally educated. This is the guy who along with his wife has been evicted twice from HousingSA properties due to redevelopment. They are practicing Christians who pray and read the Bible every day. They don't drink or smoke and he has had serious chest surgery. HousingSA moved them from their safe, roomy, very old house to a small block of units near a nasty intersection. Their new neighbours include violent drug dealers, addicts and a man just out of jail for paedophilia. One neighbour, one of the more reasonable characters, carries an iron bar strapped to his leg. Last week another neighbour under house arrest was tearing down the street in a car so the iron bar man whacked the moving car�s windscreen with his iron bar. The window shattered into a thousand little pieces of glass and the house arrest driver backed down the street. Just another day. Last week the older man expressed a quiet dismay at having ended up in such a place. His wife has taken to staying in bed late just to avoid facing the day. 8 December 2008 Too poor for Common Ground housing Organisations that rent government subsidised housing to the inner city "homeless" exclude those not on welfare but whom survive on incomes less than the dole. For example, Common Ground Housing won't accept applications from those with incomes less than $177.70. Some men and women living outside and not on welfare earn less than this amount. We shouldn't assume this rule by Common Ground and other agencies is simply stupidity. It is more likely a conscious, deliberate policy to exclude the poorest "homeless" from housing unless they "clock into" the system and accept welfare payments. It�s the choice of becoming beggars or working at underclass wages and feeling the weight of the system against oneself. This is the war against the "homeless". 5 December 2008 Homeless Count back on government website The Department of Families and Communities August 2008 Homeless Count is back on the department's website. It disappeared about the time Kris Hanna criticised the accuracy of the numbers though a very helpful employee said it disappeared because their website was being revamped and it had inadvertently been dropped. But it's back. However, they've positioned it so a direct link doesn't work. To read the report go to http://www.dfc.sa.gov.au then click on "Research" in the second horizontal blue menu bar. On the subsequent page the final link will be near the bottom of the page. 5 December 2008 A Unity Freedom of Information Request One can�t claim Dave Tuckworth didn�t warn me about the quality of their Freedom of Information service. He implied it would be low. HousingSA and most federal and state government departments will provide anyone with a copy of their files, usually without charge. Centrelink is excellent with FOI Requests. But while Unity administers government housing taken from HousingSA stock they are a private outfit run by who-the-hell-knows and not formally required to meet Freedom of Information legislation. And they don�t. Here is the total content of one personal file: two blank application forms. An actual FOI response would be to provide copies of application forms completed by the client plus copies of all letters, memos, emails sent and received by the client. Dave Tuckworth said they�d switched computers and sort of implied they didn�t even keep emails sent by clients. Truth or Fiction? This is how the privatisation of welfare services has degraded Freedom of Information Requests and, generally, degraded those who depend on these services. 2 December 2008 Common Ground The Bus Station "studio apartments" are actually self-contained rooms; rent is 30% of income. This means about $64 a week for a single person on the dole while a pensioner pays about $86 a week. They currently have 37 units 30 to 40% of which are occupied by non-"homeless" people, that is, low-income workers (below $20K annually) and by foreign students. This means Common Ground houses 23 or 24 people from the "homeless" class. Common Ground wants to reduce the homeless percentage to 50%. Their waiting list is 150 with very few expected vacancies because current tenants have little reason to leave as Common Ground is long-term accommodation. (This is the opposite of what Common Ground boss, Sir Theo Kalamaras', wants; he wants to boot people out after a period of tenancy. Common Ground monitors and records tenants' movements in and out of the Bus Station units building via plastic entry cards. Submitting to ongoing support and having a "support worker" is encouraged but not mandatory. Tenants require permission to have friends stay overnight and then they can stay only a few days. The Light Square project is expected to be finished in early 20ll and should house another fifty or sixty foreign students, low income workers and "homeless" people. The Common Ground person I contacted at 91 Franklin Street, Adelaide was refreshingly pleasant and open to questions. That greatly surprised me and if their tenancy management operates on these principles of openness then Common Ground could teach HousingSA a thing or two. Next Month: The dark side: Common Grounds application form 1 December 2008 Kris Hanna exposes another flaw in Adelaide "homeless" count Member of Parliament, Kris Hanna, has further discredited the Department of Families and Communities homeless count. He discovered a document showing that DFC had considered counting the homeless under the age of 18, but decided against it. Counting them would have only increased the "official" Adelaide homeless count. Monsignor Land Broker Cappo must have gloated initially to have got an early copy of the August 2008 count, which he paraded in front of the Prime Minister's obese wife. It showed there were less people sleeping outside than before. But in the end the count has generally been discredited by those working in the "homeless" scene - just another fraud in which everyone except the "homeless". 27 November 2008 Rotten teeth man loses 16 kilos Everyone thought the thin man getting thinner each time we saw him had some systemic disorder. He hardly ate anything at the free welfare meal. But it turned out that he had rotten, infected teeth and hadn't been able to eat properly for a long time. He was on the South Australian Dental Service waiting list but didn't realise immediate treatment was available to those in constant and severe pain. The rest of us were amazed because we thought everyone knew that exaggeration was the key to quick dental treatment. That's the problem. Desperate people in constant pain wait years for government dentistry while those less in need get it. This is because the SA Dental Service won't inform clients of the services they offer. This unfairness could be remedied if the South Australian Dental Service and other agencies were more informative about services they provided. Another way is to find old derelicts to mentor those new in Adelaide's poverty scene, which, in practice is how it works. 27 November 2008 Sir Theo Kalamaras So what was Sir Theo of Common Ground doing walking up and down the aisles of the Central Markets with his phone open? Up and down, relentlessly. Is he planning to redevelop the joint; or was he stalking someone; or is business so bad he was using his phone browser to view villas in Lombok with a permanent holiday in mind? 26 November 2008 Yatala The Flinders Street HousingSA office appears designed on something straight out of Yatala Labour Prison. Actually, I was recently peeking through the fence surrounding Yatala Labour Prison and the first words that arose in my mind were �HousingSA�. 26 November 2008 Cancel that body bag An Adelaide man recently broke his neck at home during an epileptic tonic-clonic seizure. The two ambulance officers weren�t confident of moving him down his steep stairs safely in that condition so they called a second ambulance. One of the officers in the second ambulance, after hearing the condition of the patient, brought in a body bag. �That�s a little premature,� one officer said as the man�s wife looked on in horror. The man has been discharged from hospital but continues to have seizures. He told me he knew someone else who developed serious epileptic seizures. He said the reactions of others and the lack of medical and social support was so sparse that the man ended up �homeless� despite still suffering seizures. 25 November 2008 Two HousingSA tenants' story A woman and a man live in a HousingSA unit. The man is in his mid-seventies and they've been shunted twice in five years due to government redevelopment projects. The man recently underwent serious thoracic surgery. He also collects cans from rubbish bins to provide money for his seven adult children's families whenever one of them is having difficulties. The man and woman recently let a woman at risk of serious violence live with them for a few weeks. HousingSA responded by bumping the rent up immediately. When the couple's wealthier relatives from interstate stay at their unit, on their holidays, the rent doesn't increase. The HousingSA logic is that since the homeless woman had no other address then the rent should increase from Day 1 but since the visiting relatives own their own home the rent doesn't increase while they're staying there. The woman says that HousingSA "actively works against the homeless". 25 November 2008 An evening stroll in beautiful downtown Kilburn Three Somalis recently kicked and punched Mr Peter Bagdi during an evening stroll with his prostitute girlfriend in Kilburn. �They also kicked the prostitute,� Peter told me last week. 21 November 2008 Christmas hampers from hell West Lakes library is currently accepting food items in lieu of money for late library items. The food is for hampers for �needy� people this Christmas. This food will certainly beat those hampers-from-hell handed out last year by Uniting Care Wesley Adelaide. They were full of soggy biscuits and other food well past the use-by date. 21 November 2008 AFL/Cappo reform joint in Port Adelaide Jo Wickes not afraid to state the facts Jo Wickes of the Magdalene Centre has been reported by Helen Sobolewski in the Adelaide Advertiser of 10 November, 2008 as saying they're turning away up to 60 people each weekday morning. Imagine this trouping to that dump, waiting for service then being told to piss off, nicely. The whole trip there was a waste of time. Jo graciously surrendered the photo opportunity to Graham Green and James Wait, two unpaid workers at the Magdalene Centre. Most welfare centres would go belly-up within months if they weren't sustained by people like Graham and James. 17 November 2008 Guilty until proven innocent A feature of the HousingSA-required Easy Pay rent deduction is that the tenant agrees to have "�my/our rent, or other amounts�" automatically deducted from welfare payments. These "other amounts" might be when HousingSA decides that damage to the building is due to the tenant. The tenant might then have this money returned by a legal review but initially the amount is deducted. This is, effectively, HousingSA declaring the tenant guilty then "punishing" that person immediately by deducting the money, and to get it back requires the tenant going through a process to be declared "innocent". This "guilty until proven innocent" is a reversal of centuries of British and Australian law that says: "innocent until proven guilty". 13 November 2008 The Emperor has no clothes Those understated �homeless� statistics Journalists Miles Kemp and Maria Moscaritolo wrote about the Department and Families Counting the Homeless August 2008 count. They said on the News Ltd Adelaide Live website on 8 October, 2008 that: �While welfare groups challenge the validity of the results � which only include the number of rough sleepers counted by Street To Home and three city shelters on a particular night � Social Inclusion Commissioner Monsignor David Cappo defended the accuracy of the count, saying the method was sanctioned by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.� However, Julie Watkinson, the SA Director of Client Services with the Australian Bureau of Statistics told me yesterday that: �The ABS is aware of the collection of homeless statistics by the Department of Families and Communities. However, the ABS is not involved in either the collection or the compilation of these data, nor has the ABS been involved in the past.� 6 November 2008 The public stripping of Aunty Jane My New Job Network Provider The government requires my latest Job Network Member to personally interview clients once every two weeks as part of their contract. But this Job Network business has discovered a way to increase profits by shortening these interviews. They place the client in a room amongst total strangers, other clients using nearby computers, then ask the man or woman the most excruciatingly personal questions. Due to the acute embarrassment of knowing that total strangers are listening to the private details of one's life means short answers and short interviews resulting in the Job Network Member business saving heaps on employee wages. Recently they brought in an Aboriginal woman. She was very black, a clear eyed almost tribal woman aged about 42 and living on the edge of an outback town. They placed her amongst six of us men, each of us using the Job Search computers. The woman was clearly intimidated. Her answers became shorter and quieter as the interviewer's questions became increasingly personal. One question was, "Do you have any personal issues that might stop you from gaining employment?" These are code words asking if she is domestically abused, illiterate, un-skilled, has medical or psychiatric problems, or has alcohol or drug problems. A veteran like me simply sneers back, "Nope," but this woman was more forthright, more honest. Because of this each question increasingly crushed her until her voice became like the tsk-tsk of ear buds when someone nearby turns their MP3 player up full. I couldn't hear her words at two-metres, but felt not simply her embarrassment but shock like when someone is confronted verbally in public with something they can hardly face even in their own mind. I felt ashamed and angry that this Job Network outfit was using my presence to crack open the inner defences of this unfortunate woman. Later that day some other Aboriginals threw furniture around the reception area then fled down the street to avoid the police. Job Network employees ran to the windows, air crackling through the spittle in their mouths, their faces bursting with lust like kick boxing fans before an expectedly bloody fight. I don't know if the two incidents were connected but I feel regret and shame for not having had the courage to stand up and berate the employee for dishing out such injustice and abuse to the black woman. My only excuse is that I was scared, too, because another employee had started mentioning my medical details in the same room in front of strangers. 3 November 2008 Dion Carbery pictures Stacey comes across with the goods Previously it was written here that HousingSA and Unity wouldn�t supply copies of tenancy contracts to people still on the housing waiting list. Last week an envelope arrived in the post from HousingSA. It was from Stacey Theologou, Operations Manager of HousingSA � Western Adelaide � and based in their Port Adelaide office. It too two months from the date of request for these documents to arrive, but they finally did. Stacey also emailed me a list showing where I stood on each of my nominated housing areas. Nine people ahead of me in the Lefevre Peninsula area after two years on Category 1 - and currently moving at one a month. Category 1 is verging on stagnant. As a precedent similar information should be available to all prospective tenants on the waiting list. It is also time for that dodgy outfit, Unity, to provide the same level of service in providing tenancy documents. 31 October 2008 Gail's continuing battle with the bureaucracts who took her daughter �My daughter is totally screwed in the head. Ten years old and they�ve got her on medication. They say she�s got anxiety-depression. I�ve told FAYS (welfare) that the foster mother is ruining her but they won�t listen. Too much paperwork, too many court cases, two much trouble so they leave her there.� Gail, speaking at a free meal in Port Adelaide. Government welfare workers took her daughter at birth and Gail has been trying since then to get her back. 31 October 2008 Contradictions Clause 3 (d) of the HousingSA Probationary Conditions of Tenancy contract says: (d) Unless the Trust otherwise agrees, tenants on statutory incomes (Centrelink or similar) must pay rent and other money due to the Trust by direct deduction from their statutory income payments. Then the Authorisation to have this money deducted done via the EasyPay Rent Deduction Scheme says: "I/We understand that it is my/our choice to have the above mentioned amounts deducted from my/our social security payment and that I/we can withdraw from the scheme any time." Which one is it? 29 October 2008 Good News for HousingSA Tenants The hammer hanging over HousingSA tenants recently was whether the federal government's $1400 December bonus payment to single pensioners, ($2100 to couples), would be deemed as income by HousingSA and subsequently one-quarter of it grabbed back as extra rent. Stacey Theologou of HousingSA in Port Adelaide says that, �It is my understanding that the one off payment recently announced by the government will not be deemed as income.� 27 October 2008 Centrelink Privacy Some personal documents were sent to Centrelink on my behalf by a third person. They were marked Private and Confidential. A few days later I was at the Centrelink office in the queue. I waited twenty minutes in the queue and during that time the lone employee serving customers would retreat behind some dividers to grab application forms or stuff from a hidden computer. Each time the client was left alone at the counter. When I reached the front counter I asked the employee if they'd received my documents. "Yes," she laughed. "Right here." She pointed to the documents, removed from the envelope, sitting on the counter, upside down but within reach of whatever client had been at the counter. 25 October 2008 Homelessness down in Adelaide? The Department of Families and Communities has finally put the August 2008 Inner City "Homeless" Count on their website. This after giving Monsignor David Cappo a copy two-weeks earlier so he could promote it in the media without fear of contradiction. This latest Inner City "Homeless" Count consists of eight pages compared to the fifteen pages of the May 2008 "homeless" count. The prime figure of "rough sleepers" is down from 79 to 59, an apparently incredible achievement. The count also showed that the number surveyed was down from 342 in the May 2008 survey to 291 in the August 2008 survey. These reduced figures must be making the three main Adelaide homeless centres wonder about their continuing relevance. One factor reducing the "rough sleeper" number might have been the re-opening of Afton House with its more than one-hundred rooms. The opening of the Light Square building in the medium future may reduce the numbers even further. You'd sort of think so. If Monsignor David Cappo and his team can maintain this momentum then one day in the not so far off future the "rough sleeper" count should be twenty or ten. Currently he claims the "rough sleeper" number was 59 in the Adelaide inner city on 12 August 2008. However this number consists only those who were spotted by Street-to-home in the early morning and those at Hutt Street Centre, Byron Place Community Centre and WestCare. Not every person living outside in Adelaide would have been included in this limited count. Those not included in the count were under eighteen-year-olds not spotted by Street-to-home and who aren't allowed in the three above-mentioned homeless centres. Also those not counted were those who chose in preference to the three homeless centres the following places: Otherway Centre, Aboriginal health service, Brian Burdekin Clinic, Salvation Army services, Moore Street Centre, Magdalene Centre, the three council libraries and the State Library. Also, the Adelaide University services accessed by those living outside, Fred's Van, Currie Street Centrelink office, and those who stayed in their camping areas along the Torrens River all that day or in squats. There are also a few extensive networks I won't reveal and where people living outside camp. Those who use the three main homeless centres tend to be "old hands" in the homeless scene. Many younger novices living outside don't go there because they don't know these places exist or they dislike the atmosphere, which can be intimidating. There are also those living in their cars or even outside on rainy nights who carry on as non-homeless people during the day. There were two individuals who went to Fred's Van for six-months and appeared to be living inside comfortable homes: they were dressed better than average, groomed well and didn't appear exhausted or sun or wind burnt. As for Monsignor Cappo's claim that the "Counting the Homeless" methodology is sanctioned by the Bureau of Statistics, well, when I phoned the Bureau just after Census2006, a man there said the �homeless� figures were, and I'm quoting from memory, a "gross underestimate to say the least". What Monsignor Cappo could accurately claim is that the number of "rough sleepers" counted by the three main inner city homeless centres and those spotted by Street-to-home was down from 79 to 59 over the three-month period from May to August 2008. That would be an accurate statement and not something to be sneezed at. But to say they represented the number of people who slept outside the previous night in inner Adelaide would be laughable. 25 October 2008 Note: The August 2008 "homeless" count is at www.familiesandcommunities.sa.gov.au Click on Research near the top left of the page and the report will be under Latest Publications. Viewed on 25 October 2008 Delayed publication of Adelaide CBD �rough sleeper� homeless survey results The Department of Families and Communities said last week they�ll put the homeless survey results on their website �this week� despite it being ready for two weeks. Has there been political interference to let Monsignor Land Broker Cappo launch it at the Common Ground dinner with the Prime Minister�s wife. Holding it from publication gave the Land Broker time to promote it in the media without fear of informed contradiction? Would this be called corruption or sleaze or simply clever politics on the part of the Land Broker? 16 October 2008 Dave �Stuckwell� No wonder Dave Tuckwell was reluctant to say who MACHA merged with to become the Unity Housing Company. He knew they had betrayed tenants and those on the waiting list by merging the MACHA housing agency for �homeless� people with the psychiatric housing organisation, Spectrum. There should have been an informed vote of tenants. 10 October 2008 Denial of Informed Consent Unity Housing Company won�t supply copies of tenancy agreements to prospective tenants on the waiting list. This denies clients time to study what they�ll be expected to sign. It leaves them no time to consult their housing advocates or homeless legal service lawyers. This denial appears designed to achieve a �Consent� to the terms and conditions and avoid an �Informed Consent�. 10 October 2008 Not quite Anonymous The Department of Families and Communities ask anonymous responders to their Homeless Count survey for their first name initial and last name initial plus month of birth and year of birth. Anyone knows this is enough information to match with other government data bases like homeless centre nursing or HousingSA or Royal Adelaide Hospital or Street-to-home to identify a person. And the question is asked at the end of the survey rather than at the beginning when the sales pitch is that it is completely anonymous. 10 October 2008 Post Office Discrimination Australia post has refused to re-direct mail for a homeless man moving from a country town to Adelaide. After completing the application forms in the post office an employee ripped them up in front of him and other customers. The employee said they won�t re-direct mail from care of one post office to another. It has to be to a $70 rented post box or to a physical address. The man says he doesn�t have either and is waiting for a cheque that is sitting at the country town post office 1500 kilometres away. The man could use an inner city homeless centre but says he doesn�t want to because of the drug use and threats one receives at these places. This refusal by Australia Post is, effectively, discrimination against people who don�t have a physical address. 9 October 2008 Introducing Kathryn Crisell Kathryn Crisell appears clean. Her face conveys honesty and sincerity. Someone you can trust. That�s why the Department of Premier and Cabinet hired her to work largely with the Social Inclusion Unit as their new spin doctor. Her job will be to put the desired spin on the government�s homeless policies. This means she�ll be paid to tell lies that sound like the truth. Spin doctors were once rare in the government when you could phone a department and get answers from any public servant. Now, the government uses senior media advisors to restrict what goes out and then to colour that with spin. But how can Kathryn best the previous spin doctor who solved Monsignor Land Broker Cappo�s dilemma? The Land Broker had boasted for years of reducing �homeless� numbers in South Australia. He�d done such a good job. But the numbers stopped dropping. Then homeless services said they were inundated by �homeless� people despite the Land Broker proclaiming victory. He was in trouble until his spin doctor saviour arrived. The advice was, apparently, to blame everything on �homeless� people coming to Adelaide from other states. They were flocking to South Australia after hearing that Monsignor Land Broker was doing a heavenly job of housing the homeless. This spin made his failure appear a roaring success. The saviour-like spin doctor even, apparently, advised the Land Broker to blame the �homeless�, vaguely implying those living outside were having it too good. Nothing too definite that might encourage logical debate, but enough to throw a negative spin on both the �homeless� and the church agencies who serve them. Anything to detract from the obvious conclusion that millions of taxpayer dollars spent helping the �homeless� had achieved very little for anyone except increase career prospects for a number of bureaucrats and political appointees like Land Broker Cappo. Kathryn Crisell, fresh from her stint at the Yorke Peninsula Country Times newspaper will have to be inspired by the devil to beat that spin. And it�s too late for her to formulate �homeless� census counts that target centres popular with those arriving from interstate while missing places where local �homeless� congregate. That�s already been done. And she must not mention the fact that �homeless� people are in constant movement between states and that many South Australian homeless are currently interstate. God, no. If Kathryn Crisell feels she is a hard-nosed woman of the world now then she won�t recognise herself after a couple of years with Monsignor Land Broker Cappo�s crowd. She�ll be so far down the track of deception that her definition of the word �truth� may well be �believable spin�. Those old, cynical church and government bureaucrats shouldn�t do this to a young woman. It�s like engaging her in intellectual pornography. 8 October 2008 Who is Unity Housing Company? Surprise, surprise to those on the Multi-Agency Community Housing Assoication waiting list. MACHA specialised in housing people living outside until recently subsumed by Spectrum, a sleazy housing outfit that specialises in psychiatric clients. This amalgamation appears the essence of Monsignor Land Broker David Cappo's "social inclusion" ideology in which people living outside are equated with psychiatric patients, and treated as such. That's what the "homeless" get when fallible humans play God with them. . I've always wondered why the most resilient people in the homeless scene stay living outside, or rent industrial sheds or other expensive private rental. 18 September 2008 Disempowering Individuals Both Macha (Unity) and HousingSA refuse to supply tenancy agreement forms to those on the housing waiting list. This stops clients from reading carefully the contracts. Staff show these tenancy contracts to clients just prior to being signed and without leaving enough time for the client to read them carefully, and perhaps ask an advisor or support worker to interpret the fine print. This protocol complements the policy of David Cappo and the Social Inclusion Unit to disempower those in the �homeless� class at every opportunity. 18 September 2008 A harmless demand by MACHA (Unity) ? Macha, now called Unity Housing Company, rent hundreds of rooms and units owned by HousingSA. They recently sent letters demanding all waiting list clients complete questionnaires. One requirement in the questionnaire was: �Please provide the details of the support worker and/or the organisation that provides you with support to live independently.� Macha�s requirement for getting on the waiting list has always been that the applicant has a support worker, case manager, whatever, even if the client doesn�t need one. Most people living outside don�t have support workers. A support worker gains permission from the client to disclose his or her personal information to a range of welfare agencies. The information exchange is done by telephone to avoid leaving an electronic or paper trail. Macha (Unity) demands that each person on the waiting list name their �support worker� on the dotted line below the sentence: �Please provide the details of the support worker and/or the organisation that provides you with support to live independently.� So what�s the problem with this? The problem is that answering the question forces the client to agree that the support worker �provides you with support to live independently.� But most humans on the Macha waiting list simply live in boarding houses or outside or whatever and don�t have any trouble �living independently�. They simply want to rent cheap housing previously owned by the Housing Trust. But by answering Macha�s question the clients are tricked into agreeing they�re at risk of institutionalisation, which, in most cases, isn�t a reality in their lives. After completing the questionnaire they are treated by Macha as semi-institutionalised people despite most never having been in an institution, except school. Those who don�t complete the questionnaire are kicked off the waiting list despite waiting six or seven years for housing. The Macha (Unity) employees probably aren�t conscious of this smashing of human self-esteem. 17 September 2008 Is this "social inclusion" or Exclusion? A mildly disabled woman in her forties with a strong intellect and in good humour lives in her car in Adelaide. HousingSA told her that even on Category 1 the waiting time for housing is at least two years. Like most people living outside in the CBD she doesn't appear on those DFC "homeless census'" because she doesn't hang around the three homeless centres where the census is taken. Yet the Social Inclusion Commissoner and Land Broker, Monsignor David Cappo runs around to conferences, conventions and the media saying that homeless numbers in Adelaide CBD are dropping. Cappo is either deluded or consciously misrepresenting the situation for his own gain. Cappo wastes money on himself and his bureaucractic cronies when this money should be used to build new housing 18 August 2008 And the car dweller adds... Galloper the Innocent [that wanker cappo] heads a task force that has been appointed to develop strategies to attract more people to SA, and retain the young people already here. Their goal is 2 million by 2050 What the hell does that have to do with social inclusion? 18 August 2008 �Next Pope� and the Listerine Kid off on another junket While housing availability in Adelaide for underclass people, especially those living outside, deteriorates David Cappo and his side-kick, David �Listerine� Waterford, are off on another �Conference�. This one is in Melbourne. It�s the Conference Partnerships for Social Inclusion 15 and 16 October, Melbourne. There will be lots of �Papers� and speeches delivered and then they�ll return to Adelaide and pretend that housing availability is getting better for those living outside. Except it won�t be getting better. They will simply preach the same old story; same old lie. What is getting better is that this �social inclusion� stuff is providing all kinds of extras in the careers of the bureaucrats. They can�t believe their luck. Cappo can�t believe his luck. 18 August 2008 Exit Stage Left Sue Vardon has retired. Let�s hope she stays there and doesn�t re-appear as some �consultant�. 18 August 2008 Dion Carbery Dead Dion Carbery died last Thurday, 7 August 2008. He sold Big Issue Magazine from his wheelchair in the lane alongside Uniting Care Wesley Port Adelaide. Dion was certainly a businessman. He�d hand me a magazine and offer a receipt before we�d hardly said hello. He liked to debate with people. His voice tone enlivened listeners. He had a good voice. Dion was lucky that way. Whether he was shivering in the cold laneway or boiling during heat waves his voice tone remained upbeat, up-tempo. One month he raged against a woman who borrowed $500 from him then disappeared. When he demanded repayment she got someone to threaten him. He was also mugged by three thirteen-year-old boys. It was a Saturday morning when they snuck up behind his wheelchair outside Woolworth�s and grabbed his money tin. Police didn�t lay charges, but when the Port Adelaide Messenger newspaper reported the incident strangers turned up with fifty-dollar notes for one magazine, �Keep the change.� Dion smiled at the irony. He had trouble getting around and spent a fortune on Taxis. One disappointment was not being able to get to the Big Issue�s 10th birthday celebration in Victoria Square. He was their star salesman. Dion Carbery hated Port Power football club with a vengeance. He�d wear that huge Crows hat in the middle of Port Adelaide, even during the finals. His voice turned nasty and menacing if anyone uttered a good word for Port Power. Their barman at Alberton refused to serve him a drink ten-years ago and the whole club paid for that mistake. Dion wouldn�t forgive them. He got a blood clot in his tiny knee where it bent around the seat. Some agency gave him a piece of foam to put under his knee and a block under his foot to get the blood flowing. Doctors prescribed pills to attempt to dissolve the clot. He spent long periods in the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre and was critical of the lack of knowledge some people there had of Spina bifida and Hydrocephalus. Dion lived mostly alone and during a short period when a number of his family fell ill and died, or were injured and died, he told his mother to not visit him while she was caring for others in the family. He didn�t want to burden her with his condition. Dion died of a heart attack at 31. It seems in the balance that he gave more than he took. Many people are in grief at his death. He might not have realized this would be the case. 16 August 2008 Pictures of Dion selling Big Issue 2005 1 2 Newspaper picture of Dion http://messenger-news.whereilive.com.au/news/story/farewell-dion-a-port-legend/ Home |
