| Home Archived by the National Library of Australia norm barber Homeless Hot Gossip 7 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 14 January 2008 to 11 March 2008 The most recent message appears at the top. Updated 11 March 2008 Common Ground I was walking along Franklin Street with Ugandan John and the West Terrace campers last Thursday when we passed the Common Ground Bus Station units. A two-metre vinyl roll-out display advertising the project was located on the ground floor in front of the elevator that goes up to the flats. Its message was, basically, that the people living upstairs were pathetic charity cases. Yet Sir Theo Kalamaras, chairman of Common Ground, and its main beneficiary, claims the project is to improve the self-esteem of residents. Is Sir Theo naive or ignorant or simply Machiavellian? 11 March 2008 Alan B., the Big Issue Vendor Alan sells Big Issue magazine Monday to Saturday afternoons in Rundle Mall in front of the Myer Centre and on Sunday afternoons further down near Pulteney Street. The cover price is five-dollars of which Vendors get half. Alan frequently sells for three-dollars to pensioners and other low-income people. He's a rather classy sort of vendor. 11 March 2008 Proud Trevor Trevor, who lives outside and doesn't collect welfare, was proudly displaying his can opener at the Teen Challenge meal. It's the size of a twenty-cent piece. He is a minimalist who carries all his belongings, including tarp and blanket, in a small backpack. 11 March 2008 South Australian Dental Service Private dentists perform better dental work than those contract dentists at the government dental clinics, right? Most of us think this. So when the SA Dental Service sends a low income patient to a private dentist for a ten-dollar appointment it appears a dream come true. But private dentists get paid less by the government when treating welfare patients. One dentist described working on welfare patients as "community service". This prompts them to do less work; to leave minor problems untouched, so they can concentrate their labours on richer customers who pay the full rate. Some welfare patients react by expressing preference for the underpaid dentists at the government dental clinics. Others prefer to go private, especially if they�ve found a superb dentist. So you'd think the South Australian Dental Service would let welfare patients decide on private or government dentists. It makes no difference to them. But they don't allow choice; when your name comes up its one or the other, whatever. Why should they offer choice to welfare patients when it's just as easy to show contempt by denying choice? 11 March 2008 WestCare Gourmet Extras �Do you want to watch me pick my nose?� said the cook at WestCare this week to a customer at the $2 meal. 7 March 2008 Latest Housing Trust Statistics From South Australian Housing Trust Trust in Focus 2006-2007 Department for Families and Communities Government of South Australia New Tenancies p11 61% single 23% single parent New Applications for Housing p11 1997-98 - 14,000 2006-07 - just over 6000 Waiting List p12 1998 - 30,489 2007 - 22,339 New Applications for Housing p12 Category 1 - 14% Category 2 - 25.2% Category 3 - 56.4% New Tenancies p14 Category 1 - 14.5% Category 2 - 25.2% Category 3 - 56.4% Existing Tenancies p16 2003 - 45,377 2007 - 42,548 Homeless p23 7.4% of Waiting List are "Homeless" 13.8% of allocations go to those classed as "Homeless" Housing Trust Income p34 34% of Trust income was from selling off stock Rental Stock Rental Housing reached a peak of 63,022 in 1992 p55 More recent rental stock figures p39 1998 - 55,996 1999 - 54,530 2000 - 53,310 2001 - 51,251 2002 - 49,543 2003 - 47,551 2004 - 46,727 2005 - 46,122 2006 - 45,455 2007 - 44,886 Types of Rental Housing p40 Attached Houses (also called semi-detached) - 53% Detached (separate houses and units) - 30% Flats - 6% Cottage Flats (for old people) - 11% Gender Ratio of Staff p50 61.6% female 38.4% male From South Australia Housing Trust Trust in Focus 2006-2007 Department for Families and Communities Government of South Australia The Housing Trust is now called HousingSA 7 March 2008 Homeless Gossip of Adelaide has tripled its visitor counts over the past two weeks. 7 March 2008 More Housing Disincentives A man with a wife and step daughter worked part-time for one year pushing supermarket trolleys in Port Adelaide. He got four dollars an hour for most of that year. HousingSA increased his rent one dollar for every four dollars per hour he earned. This was like taxing someone 25% on four bucks an hour. A friend of the man visited Jay Weatherill, Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust. She said he said the deduction wasn't fair, but hasn't changed the regulations that allow its enforcement. 3 March 2008 Altercation in library toilets Barmera scam artist, John Green, surprised an older man with a punch to the mouth last Tuesday in the men's toilets on the ground floor at the State Library on North Terrace, Adelaide. The time was 5:40pm, just before the lending library closed. There was one witness. The recipient of the punch was a 57-year-old man who experiences reduced mobility due to mild spasticity of the limbs. "Do you want a go? I'm ready," Green shouted at the retreating figure, after he hit him. It was a dispute over money. The man fled with a split lip as Green paced him to North Terrace. Green has dozens of convictions for fraud and forgery and targets vulnerable people who don't call the police. He has obtained substantial amounts of money from a church pastor at WestCare in Wright Street and from a seventy-five-year old volunteer at the Byron Place Community Centre. Both places provide services for those living outside. He has fraudulently obtained money from a former ABC radio programmer then gone around claiming they were great friends. Green gains the confidence of well meaning people by telling them his troubles and the intimate details of his children; their mothers; his parents, his brother at SAWater; all his relatives in Adelaide, Port Pirie and Barmera. He emphasises his desire to protect and care for his children, but ominously hints that dark forces threaten them. He paints the picture of a good family man temporarily down on his luck. Then he announces, often with tears, that a crisis in the family requires a considerable amount of money and would the well meaning person provide a short term loan. When the loan is made he disappears to the Casino, the horse races and various pokies joints like the Metropolitan Hotel, losing everything. Within a fortnight he's back on the streets but instead of being shamefaced he's angry, telling others that the person who lent him the money is a threat to his children. This gains sympathy and sooner or later another well meaning person rescues him and the cycle continues. What makes this rather predictable case of serial fraud fascinating is that Family Court of Australia records indicate that Green was denied access to his children for their own safety. But in Green's mind it's those who want to recover their loans that are threatening his children. He has psychologically subverted his children into representing the money he fraudulently obtains from others. This means, in his mind, that anyone wanting repayment is threatening his children. He actually believes this. This gives him an enhanced ability to approach others for help against creditors. He believes he's protecting his children. He'll sacrifice his life for his "children": aka to avoid repaying the loan. Thus Green, as was seen in the library toilets, has become physically dangerous to others as well as financially dangerous. This chilly scenario is similar to the mind of Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. DeSalvo strangled a number of women in the 1960s and was bemused when police detectives took him in for questioning. He didn't know he was the strangler and it took an astute psychiatrist to bring the "nice personality" section of his mind into contact with the "strangler". Green is certainly not a strangler but the mechanisms of denial appear identical. Green can't admit he's a fraudster and gambling addict; he thinks he's a nice family man being persecuted by others. Listening to him talk about his Family Court drama resembles a monologue about a third party. While Green's ruthlessness with the man in the toilet displays his Boston Strangler personality he's a timid and withdrawn figure around the hard men in the homeless scene. The confusion Green experiences in private and in public is when his contrasting split-personalities briefly make contact. Police were called to the Myer Centre food court some time ago where Green was the subject of a disturbance. His split personalities gave him conflicting impulses and despite all attempts he couldn't find his way out of the food court. He raged so vehemently that security guards called the police. One report indicates that attending police called ACIS, a Health Department psychiatric unit that responds to people having acute psychotic attacks. They bundled Green into either an ambulance or police van and took him to Glenside Psychiatric Hospital. Greg Calder, now of Street-to-home, was then in charge of ACIS. Green was detained for quite some time on Calder's recommendation and now vows revenge on Calder. But the reality is that Green prefers soft targets: well meaning people with money to support his gambling addiction. Green regularly finds a safe haven at the Catholic Hutt Street Centre. Staff treat him with kindness and respect though keep him under constant observation. He occupies a bench on most mornings that allows three escape routes in case "they" come to get him. ("They" is whichever of his personalities is dormant at that time). Two enforcers in the homeless scene have openly offered to have Green bashed, severely, the level that might leave him with permanent disabilities but compassion is more appropriate for a person with a split personality. His "takings" have dropped in the previous year due to exposure on this gossip column so he is much less a threat. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Green ends up in James Nash House, a secure facility on the grounds of the dismantled Hillcrest Hospital, or, mellows with age, accepting that his predatory life has been concentrated on people who were moved by his suffering, by those that wanted to help him. The other man is undergoing dental treatment. Anatomy of a Scam Attack Pictures of John Green 1, 2, 3 27 February 2008 Vacancies for three �Defrosters� MACHA is advertising in the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper for three new employees. One job offers a car for personal use. But what need is there for three new employees for a small organisation with a frozen waiting list? Maybe they need �defrosters� for the waiting list. Or maybe a couple of armed guards for their Alcatraz units at Lockleys. Being a tenant in that dump is a dangerous occupation. Even Frank �Banjo� Jones was run out of there by drug addicts. 25 Frebruary 2008 Housing Disincentives Most HousingSA units and houses are single occupancy meaning just one person lives in each dwelling. This is despite many occupants wanting to share with others. For example: a man and woman may occupy two HousingSA dwellings despite each of them having two or three bedrooms. They don't move in together because the rent would double, or even more than double. This is because rent is based on household income and as the income increases not just the amount paid increases but also the percentage of income charged. Another disincentive is that if the shared arrangements are discontinued the person who gave up his or her unit might wait ten to fifteen years to get back into another one. So there is no incentive to live together. This means a number of HousingSA's 40,000 dwellings are under utilised. Reducing rent for couples would encourage the sharing of houses and make the vacated houses available for the "homeless". The argument against the above is that HousingSA would have to reduce rent for all couples. But so few HousingSA dwelling are occupied by couples or families that the loss of rent would be minimal and this could be offset by the increased availability of properties vacated as tenants "doubled up". Sadly, the Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust can't contemplate this scenario. He's paralysed by the ideology of selling off government housing to developers who knock down the buildings then construct "Mickey Mouse" dwellings and rent them back to the previous and new tenants at higher rents. And don't expect anything positive from "the next Pope". He's off on a new project to increase South Australia's population to two million. And even if he did address this issue could he resist adding coercion into the mix. 25 February 2008 Jasmin Restaurant The Jasmin restaurant meal last Thursday in Hindmarsh Square was exceptionally good, as always. The meal contained big cubes of seasoned meat (if you like meat). I figure their curries are better than those produced by the Real Indians at Fred's Van. Fred's Van was short on food and they didn't bring enough plastic bowls for the vegetarian curry delivered by the Real Indians. At least nobody got beat up. One man said he goes to the Krishna meal in Hurtle Square on Monday and Wednesdays. He says no one ever gets beaten up there. 25 February 2008 Health Raid? An informant says health inspectors examined WestCare�s kitchen last week. They took pictures. A hidden box of out-of-date Dove chocolate was quickly removed by staff and will, according to our informant, be distributed to clients today at 1:30pm. It has not been made clear why the inspectors chose WestCare. It might have been a routine inspection though a number of clients have longstanding grievances against the cook. One says the cook scoops ice-cream from a container then uses her hand to remove it from the scoop then plops it into a bowl. �At least she now wears a glove,� one informant stated, adding, �Where did she learn that technique?� It should be stated that the cook hasn�t had a chance to state her side of the story. I always found the food okay at WestCare except when the cook was absent for a few weeks and the fish overcooked. 22 Friday 2008 �Homeless� units not available to most �homeless�? �Tony rang to say that the word on the street is that you can�t get into this accommodation [Bus Station Common Ground units] if you have a drug or alcohol problem, or a criminal record. He said that makes it quite difficult for the homeless.� Matthew Abraham on ABC 5AN on Friday, 15 February 2008 �Rumours,� responded Jay Weatherill, Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust Posted 22 February 2008 Strange Days Martin Hamilton-Smith, leader of the South Australian Opposition, is proposing to expand HousingSA by 1000 homes year. Jay Weatherill, Minister for Housing, is currently selling off housing stock. 20 February 2008 Latest Picture of the back of the Stalag Afton Redevelopment "Social Inclusion" keeping another man living outside There is a man living outside who often reads reference books at the State Library. He�s never been mentioned previously in this column. He told me last night that he was saving most of his welfare money to rent a flat. I asked him why he didn�t stay at St Vincent de Paul night shelter in Whitmore Square for $5 a night until he saved enough cash. They invariably have lots of vacancies. He said he tried to stay there but they wanted too much information, especially about his medical condition; He suffers asthma and arthritis and another major condition that he didn�t want to tell them about. He�s in his mid-fifties, sunburnt and looks shattered though he speaks clearly and with humour. They refused him entry to the hostel despite having empty cubicles so he continues to sleep on the ground. This policy of St Vincent de Paul of refusing accommodation to �homeless� people isn�t isolated to St Vinnies. It�s the Rann government�s Social Inclusion policy of �increased intervention�, which means accommodation previously available to those living outside is now subject to the surrendering of privacy rights. Thus, �Social Inclusion� and �the next Pope� are actually excluding some people even more than before, extending their period of �homelessness�. 15 August 2008 The Ghost-Who-Walks The Ghost was socialising with a dozen diners at Gawler Court last night. A woman from the West Terrace campers arrived thirty minutes after Fred�s Van had left. Bad luck, until the Ghost went to his clapped-out car and gave her sandwiches and jubes. She left. Then he put the rest of his food in a bag to hide for �PJ� who missed out on both the Teen Challenge meal and Fred�s Van because he said he had an �appointment�. �PJ� would pick it up later that night while heading for his secret camping area. 15 August 2008 Theo Kalamaras Sir Theo Maras, OA, said today that the claim that Common Ground excluded homeless drug users was �bunk�. A resident of East Park Lodge, another government-funded CBD project in Angas Street, Adelaide, told me that management �kept out the druggies�. Another man, living outside, said his Case Manager told him to pretend to be ex-homeless when seeking government-funded accommodation for the homeless, implying that these places don�t want homeless people applying for tenancy. The Advertiser newspaper reported today that Theo Maras stated the majority of tenants in the 37 Common Ground on top of the Bus Station will be university students and artists. This paints a grim picture made even grimmer when you think of the millions soaked up by David Cappo and his Social Inclusion bureaucrats, and the Street-to-home agency. 15 August 2008 Erica-on-the-Street Whatever happened to seventy-year-old �Erica�? For years she�s had trouble getting to the Teen Challenge meal because of a bad hip. She�s been on the hip replacement list for years. She complained a lot then ended up in Glenside, then released, still with the bad hip, but with a lower bicycle. She was always a lively personality in the scene, frequently recollecting the day the Russians entered her town at the end of World War 2. 15 February 2008 Chook The loud, aggressive woman at Fred�s Van who wants to become a worker for Fred�s Van was seen one evening shaking hands with everyone, introducing herself as �Chook�. She was simply captivating though by the end of the evening she was being held back by a friend while shouting angrily at a departing group of diners. �Chook� is a little rough around the edges, but there is potential. 15 February 2008 Praise for Fred�s Van A veteran in the homeless scene told me last night that he measured the worth of government spending on welfare on what actually reached ground level. On that score Fred�s Van might be on the top of his list. Government funding to them apparently grows as it moves to �ground level�. 14 February 2008 Inside the Big Lie �The next Pope� this week was promoting himself on radio by saying primary homeless numbers had dropped from 130 to 90 in the Adelaide CBD. When you consider the cost of employing 15-20 people in Street-to-home; the cost of monitor housing at East Park Lodge; the cost of the empty Common Ground units; government funded social workers administering empty beds in St Vinnies Night Shelter; and what Cappo and his group in Social Inclusion Unit siphon off then the cost of reducing homelessness during the last four years might have built enough houses and units to house hundreds of people. But those living outside have seen little benefit: just more control freaks. 14 February 2008 �Write This� �Write this,� a diner at WestCare told me, describing the $2 lunch at WestCare. �Today there was no soup, main course was a snag and a chop and two leaves and desert was a muesli bar. The Aboriginals got kangaroo steak. 14 February 2008 Blood spilt on the eve of Sorry Day �We kill �em tonight. We got plenty of time,� said one of three fat Aboriginal women who were yelling at another older fat woman at Fred�s Van last night. The older woman retreated towards the police station while returning her own threats. The Emergency Medical Technology (free homeless ambulance) arrived just behind Fred�s Van. Police were speaking to a Fred�s Van worker when the older woman returned and a fight broke out with the �We kill �em� woman. They used broken cups as weapons. The older woman suffered a wound that quickly covered her face and breasts with thick, glistening blood. Another ambulance arrived, this one from the SA Ambulance Service, with its new paint job saying �Emergency Ambulance�. Two officers pulled a trolley stretcher to the bleeding woman who jumped up and tried to restart the fight with the other woman. Two police blocked her movement with outstretched arms. (They weren�t game to touch her with all that blood.) The bleeding woman rejected the trolley so they pulled it back to the ambulance. Three ambulance officers, both from EMT and SA Ambulance then stopped the bleeding and applied bandages. Meanwhile, as comic relief, a Fred�s Van volunteer threw out-of-date packaged muffins at the diners. It was like a zoo and some police present, by now there were seven or eight, smiled at our antics - people enjoy zoos. �He means well,� a patron said of the man, who raised a few smiles on this terrible night. Posted 13 Wednesday 2008 Fun and Games ? �Are you depressed? Ha,ha,ha,� jeered a young Aboriginal woman in a group of three while they expelled an older white woman from a bench. The white woman suffers from depression and usually lies on the bench while waiting for Fred�s Van. The others, drinking white cask wine from dirty Coke bottles, wanted the bench for themselves. 13 Wednesday 2008 Scary �Coastland Scares,� said a man in the Fred�s Van queue after being handed a red notice saying that violence and the grabbing of food would not be tolerated. The notice was from St Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army and CoastlandsCares. The notice was distributed by an aggressive, threatening woman who is often the instigator of abuse. Last night she was charming and said she was going to become a Fred�s Van worker. People respond to opportunity to give. 13 February 2008 WestCare Two reliable sources at WestCare, 212 Wright Street, Adelaide told me that while paid employees must now pay for meals the volunteers get a free meal if they work a minimum of ninety-minutes. 13 February 2008 Fresh Fan Mail The Psychology of David Cappo Below is a section of an interview between David Bevan of ABC radio 5AN and David Cappo of the Catholic Church and the South Australian Government from Monday, 11 February 2008. It is interesting to see Cappo�s response to Bevan�s critical question on his performance. This interview followed the Adelaide City Council�s removal and destruction of bedding and personal effects of 20 Aboriginals camping in the west parklands. David Cappo: �Then on Sunday morning I, I just thought dropped over to the West Parklands to look at the site and talk to the Aboriginal people there. Um, look, it is clear to me, uh, that, um, the city council must never do this again. I think we�ve moved beyond this sort of action�� David Bevan: �Do you see the situation there in any way as evidence of a failure on your part or on the part of the Social Inclusion Board? David Cappo: �I, I think it, it�s, it more, ah, to me, highlights the fact that we are dealing with an incredibly complex issue. You know, we�re dealing with mental health issues, drug and alcohol issues, dysfunction in, in family networks, a whole range of issues.� 12 February 2008 Jay Weatherill and Machiavelli The comments by Jay Weatherill concerning the destruction and theft of homeless people's property in the west parklands by people acting on orders from the Adelaide City Council are very revealing indeed. Weatherill said that government policy was working in homeless scene and that this occurrence had turned the situation into a "cause celebre" - THAT is the only thing creatures like Weatherill fear - a light being shone on his insidious nature. It takes an episode like this, publicly reported, to expose the sort of paradigm politicians set for the treatment of vulnerable and disadvantaged people. I'm sure the irony of all the publicity to say "sorry" to Aboriginal people is not lost, even on a Labor lacky like George Weatherill MLC, Jay Weatherill�s father. What they have done is absolutely disgusting. Mick 12 February 2008 Homelessness Down Three? �Three people have died crossing West Terrace trying to get over to where they can actually gather.� From a woman calling a radio station saying that by banning the consumption of alcohol in Victoria Square the Aboriginals have been forced to relocate in the West Terrace parklands and three have been killed crossing that difficult road. 12 February 2008 The Stolen Property Drama Street-to-home's involvement in Adelaide City Council's confiscation and destruction of homeless peoples' bedding last week. "�I am concerned that Monsignor Cappo does not feel well informed because through Street-to-home we understood that he was being kept informed and we have been working closely with that agency�" Stuart Mosely, Adelaide City Council CEO talking to Mathew Abraham and David Bevan on ABC Radio 5AN last week. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, "the next Pope" vows to update his telephonist skills. "I just don't understand it. It's really annoying and, um, I'll be making lots of phone calls for the next couple of hours to find out what in Heaven's name has gone on." David Cappo, also on 5AN. So has Street-to-home deliberately kept Cappo in the dark? The difference of opinion first surfaced publicly 18-months ago when the Council placed eviction notices on the bedding of people sleeping in the parklands. David Cappo was outraged yet Greg Calder of Street-to-home expressed agreement with the Council. Readers might be surprised how an agency supposedly helping homeless people could condone the Council making life harder for them. Both Calder and Cappo want reduced "homeless" statistics but "the next Pope" can justify his position by playing around with regional homeless statistics to make it look like he's having some effect. Calder's brief is far more focused. His only job is to get people "off the streets", one way or another, in the city area and because they're more visible in the CBD it's harder for him to fake the stats. Last year two surveys were done of "homelessness" in the Adelaide CBD. The second survey concluded that the numbers of unsheltered people dropped from 108 to 93, which was a coup for Greg Calder. But the reduced numbers were, apparently, due mostly to 13 people in tents leaving or being expelled from the West Terrace Parklands. But they came back, and despite losing their bedding last week they might remain and stay visible until the next survey, which then might show that homeless numbers in the Adelaide CBD haven't dropped at all. Then the number crunchers in Media Mike's government might ask if the 15 or twenty employees of Street-to-home are having any effect at all. The above slant might provide some insight as to why Stuart Mosely implied the Council had a tacit agreement with Street-to-home to confiscate and destroy most of the bedding and personal effects of the 20 campers. The modus operandi of this "agreement" appears to be that Street-to-home social workers visited the campers in the weeks and days prior to the confiscation to gather intelligence. They determined the numbers, the "homeless status" and movements of the campers then passed this information to the Council who then knew to pounce at a time when the campers were showering and doing laundry at Byron Place Homeless Centre. The result is that the campers will become more furtive and invisible and may even miss being counted on next winter's homeless count. Or they may be encouraged by their celebrity status and be feted and supported by political groups that want to align themselves with the campers. 11 February 2008 Big People "Big people laugh at us [Centrelink] because they reckon we're hopeless. Premier Rann every Christmas he goes to Hutt Street. That's leading the people on. I reckon he's a crawler only because he wants a vote�Aboriginals [are] acting too smart. You write that" A man speaking at a homeless centre last week. 11 February 2008 "Common Ground" from the Street Another man, this one living under bushes, told me that the proclaimed 24/7 presence of a social worker at the Common Ground Bus Station units won't be kept. He said instead there would be a Pakistani social worker from London, England who will be available once in a while. 11 February 2008 Top Service After ordering employees not to speak to members of the public but to instead refer all enquiries to their call centre in Pirie Street, the Adelaide City Council conducted a survey to register public satisfaction with its reduced services. Guess where the survey was conducted? It was in front of the security guard and people working in the call centre. The customers pay traffic fines or negotiate building permission applications there. The normally loud Muzak was turned down while the verbal question and answer survey was being conducted. We all know how payback works in Adelaide so will the survey results conclude that most are ecstatically happy with service provided by the Adelaide City Council? 11 February 2008 Cappo's Face Closet Looking at the Social Inclusion Unit's newsletters one can't help but notice the many pictures showing the choreographed facial expressions of our humble man of God, Vicar General Monsignor Company Director David Cappo. With "homeless" people he invariably wears a broad shark-like smile. With Media Mike he wears his deadly serious look, which is quite a feat considering Mike's silly looking face. But how does he choose the right face when appearing in a photograph with both a "homeless" type person and a government minister like Jay Weatherill? He goes half-and-half. http://www.socialinclusion.sa.gov.au/files/SI_Newsletter_Dec07revised.pdf 11 February 2008 The Good Old Days? Dr X was saying last week that once he held up a banana to tell Fred's Van diners that staff were distributing bananas. He said the response of one woman was to run up to him and punch him in the jaw knocking out two teeth. 11 February 2008 Extra Nasty Fan mail Smokescreen over bedding destruction The Adelaide City Council waited until campers in the West Terrace parklands had gone to Byron Place Community Centre for showers and laundry before taking and destroying most their bedding and camping gear. Council CEO, Stuart Moseley, defended the action saying the Council had consulted with the psychiatric agency, Street-to-home, who, apparently, told the Council that the campers chose to live outside. (This somehow justified tossing their bedding into the rubbish). But Jo Wickes of HomelessnessSA said the Aboriginal campers couldn�t be housed because the hostels are full. So who is telling the truth? Street-to-home might have offered to help house the campers but under what conditions and in what accommodation. Clients of Street-to-home told me the agency requires people to complete dozens of pages of questions: intrusive personal questions. They also require the clients to sign away privacy rights allowing Street-to-home to make �any inquiries necessary�. And what are the options of housing? They might include: a one-way bus ticket to beautiful downtown Ernabella; a trip to the barbed-wire topped enclosure called the Port Augusta Transit Camp at the Davenport Community; a fast ride to Glenside Hospital or Palm Lodge; Hurtle Square rooming houses that don�t allow visitors; the HousingSA waiting list for units in suburbia; �monitor housing� at Lady Adolph�s East Park Lodge, etc. Unless we know what type of �housing� was offered to those in the parklands and under what conditions then it is difficult to determine whether they chose to be �homeless� or not. If the �housing� was an agreement for them to be effectively institutionalized then it can hardly be called housing per se. Under the present policy of secrecy in Media Mike Rann�s government we are unable to discover the full story and must rely on government spin doctors and Stuart Mosely. Therefore, we�re left in the dark. 7 February 2008 Fred�s Van loses volunteers after this week�s violence A diner at Fred�s Van threw food into the face of a volunteer server at Fred�s Van this week. The diner wanted more than one serving to take to friends but Fred�s Van rules are that a person gets just one plate or sandwich at a time. This is to ensure everyone gets a first serving before anyone else gets a second. The client didn�t like this so tossed the food into the server�s face. John Lamprell, the coordinator, said there were more threats on the following days resulting in two volunteers quitting. Dr X said four volunteers quit. On Thursday evening two servers appeared just sixteen-years-old while the rest are over 65. There wasn�t any violence but plenty of paranoia. 7 February 2008 Mystery Photographer The man taking photos of clients of Fred�s Van said he was simply testing his camera in low light and just happened to be pointing it at us in Gawler Court. 7 February 2008 Update on Sunrise Closure A person connected with Sunrise Supported Residential Facility said there won�t be a problem relocating residents to other government subsidized boarding houses. She said it was closing in May and that few residents would go to HousingSA units because they needed constant support. One resident says he�s going to SeaBreeze rooming house in Semaphore but that he will have to share a room with strangers whereas at Sunrise he had his own room. He is unhappy about this as well as losing contact with other people, but at least it is in the Semaphore area. 7 February 2008 Gossip Archive Reverse Latest Fan Mail Sunset at Sunrise The Sunrise Supported Residential Facility at Peterhead, near Semaphore, is being bulldozed in July. The owners don't want to spend the money needed to meet the government's new fire regulations and will replace the building with a block of flats. Sunrise is a rooming house that serves meals and is subsidised by the government. Its residents have serious disabilities and have lived there up to twelve years. They have been in shock for two months since learning of the closure. They don't know where they can go by June. There has been no government consultation with them despite these residents facing homelessness. HousingSA has not been reassuring because it's in the process of selling properties for military redevelopment and the transferred tenants have seized up movement on the waiting list. I won't betray the Sunrise Residents' privacy by detailing their disabilities or stress symptoms but they are serious, to say the least. If "Social Inclusion" was anything more than the re-institutionalisation of those in the "homeless" culture then they'd be onto this issue immediately. They'd at least assure the residents personally and in writing that they would be rehoused before the demolition date. They would also say that all attempts would be made to place them close to each other in the Port Adelaide/Semaphore area. Even better, they would begin the moving process immediately by giving them priority to appropriate government-owned housing. 4 February 2008 Mystery Photographer It was the Ernabella folk yelling at a photographer that drew our attention to a man taking photos of us at Fred's Van. He was using a Kodak 10X Optical Zoom from the corner of Wakefield Street and Gawler Place. He was within four metres of the entrance of the police station but he isn't with the police, but rather a diner at Fred's Van. 4 February 2008 The Suspect "Just say why was the car of a certain employee of a certain homeless place parked at the back at 11:00pm?" A person in the homeless scene asked me to place this question on the gossip column. 4 February 2008 Dental Waiting List Trickery When Media Mike says the waiting time for government dentistry is shrinking it isn't necessarily true. Previously a person having undergone dental treatment would within a month rejoin the waiting list. This was despite not having a dental problem but knowing that after three years on the waiting list there would be plenty of problems. So it was a matter of jumping in quick. The Dental Service has introduced a new rule saying that patients have to wait twelve months after dental treatment before rejoining the waiting list. This effectively creates a twelve month breathing space to allow the waiting list to shrink, but adds twelve months onto the waiting time for further treatment. So nothing actually changes for the patients but it allows the Premier of South Australia to claim a reduction in waiting for dental care when it may not have actually happened. 4 February 2008 Camera Phone The cook at WestCare has complained of kitchen staff displaying camera phones in the kitchen. 4 February 2008 "Break Up the Boys' Club" Receptionist Heather Mason is reported to have left the Seniors Information Service at 45 Flinders Street, Adelaide. Heather was momentarily famous for saying to me that new rules introduced to limit clients' use of the internet lounge to two hours a day was designed to "break up the boys' club". She said too many older men were using the computers and they wanted more women involved. Thereafter, you could walk by the Lounge in the afternoon and see an empty room. But this was okay for management because they could still claim to the government that a similar amount of people used the lounge, but just not say it was for shorter periods. It was also easier for staff to manage an empty room than one filled with people. A strange act of the purge was to personally hand Street-to-home leaflets to some of the elderly men. 4 February 2008 Fiddling the Books A "homeless" man last week told me his "support worker" told him that the most effective way of obtaining housing while living outside was to claim to be "ex-homeless". Her advice was to claim to be living somewhere temporarily but having once lived outside. The reason is that agencies housing "homeless" people find them difficult tenants but ex-homeless aren't so bad. They could still claim credit for "reducing homelessness" by housing someone at risk of homelessness and thus still justify government funding. 4 February 2008 Man helped by Common Ground Theo KalaMaras, the Chairman of Common Ground homeless housing project has been the only beneficiary of the project even before a single person has been housed. Theo was awarded an Order of Australia medal last week, mostly for his work �helping the homeless�. Meanwhile, the Common Ground organization doesn�t appear to have been even slightly concerned that its 38 units have remained empty despite Media Mike Rann, the Premier announcing in November that people would move in before Christmas. It was only when Adelaide Advertiser journalist Tory Shepherd brought this fact to the public attention (Advertiser, 1 February, 2008. page 6) that Sir Theo belatedly announced that four tenants would be housed in the units next Monday. Sir Theo is the land developer of whom allegations were made that he hired a thug in the 1970�s to intimidate homeless squatters into leaving a house he wanted to demolish. Meanwhile� A sunburnt man living outside, aged about forty, went up to Street to Home on the 1st floor at 15 Bentham Street in Adelaide yesterday to ask for contact details of Common Ground, so he could apply to move into one of the Bus Station units. Two employees of Street to Home refused to tell him where Common Ground could be contacted - not even a phone number. 1 February 2008 New Fan Mail Tony abused at Crazy Cottage Tony is about sixty. He's had three strokes leaving his speech difficult to understand. The bleeding in his brain is inoperable though it has stopped presently. He gets shocking headaches but he doesn't complain loudly because his voice strength is almost gone. He collects cans from city rubbish bins. He uses a long hook device identical to those used by arthritis sufferers to grab things when they have difficulty getting up from chairs. Tony uses it because he can't fully bend over to grab the cans. The strokes affected his body. You can often see him at night pushing his shopping trolley half full of cans. He says he does it for exercise and to pay for coffee. Tony prefers the best coffee. Tony doesn't use drugs or drink alcohol or abuse pills. I've never seen him smoke. Tony lives at Crazy Cottage though he isn't crazy. Hardly anyone at Crazy Cottage is crazy. It's that large corner building at Hurtle Square. Crazy Cottage is also called Sister Betty's and is run by the Sisters of Mercy and owned by HousingSA. The caretaker at Crazy Cottage told Tony he can keep just two bags of cans in his room. Tony's social worker drives him to a recycling place in Kent Town every two weeks so Tony always accumulates more than two bags of cans during the fortnight. Tony has talked about finding a HousingSA unit in the city. It has to be ground floor because Tony has trouble with stairs. Big trouble. He could keep his cans in the HousingSA unit without the landlord becoming aggravated. Tony is currently classed as homeless because those living in rooming houses don't have tenancy agreements that protect them from instant evictions. The Sisters aren't going to kick Tony out but the stress is bothering him. You'd think that Tony could access Category 1 of the HousingSA waiting list and quickly be rented a ground floor HousingSA unit. There are heaps in the city and Tony fits all the criteria. But, no. The government housing bureaucracy is geared to grind and humiliate, to make false promises, to engage dozens of bureaucrats in what could be a simple transfer. Tony will probably get better housing in the city, eventually, if he survives that long, but in the meantime the "homeless" bureaucracy will create weeks of employment for itself and when Tony finally moves to a unit multiple agencies will claim credit for housing another "homeless" person. What we need is a Social Inclusion Commissioner with the power to cut through bureaucracies to ensure that those classed as "homeless" get secure housing. Then "homelessness" could be "eradicated". Instead we've got a pompous "next Pope", Monsignor, Vicar General, Corporate Director, Social Inclusion Commissioner, Film Reviewer David Cappo whose priorities seem to be that of expanding prisoner numbers and using psychiatric drugs as a "tool" in reducing homelessness. 28 January 2008 Eviction Notice Celebrity Can Collector, Phil, has been told to vacate his rented house. He pays a fortune in rent but the landlord wants to renovate it. Phil wants a new place where he can also keep his scrap and cans. Government and church housing is cheap to rent but they rarely allow people to keep their trade materials on the property. This means the social exclusion of about thirty can and scrap collectors from government housing. Would you think the government's Social Inclusion Commission would be up-in-arms over this policy of HousingSA? 28 January 2008 Sleeping Pills for nine-year-old FamiliesSA placed Gale�s daughter with a foster mother at birth. Gale has been trying to regain custody of her daughter for years. FamiliesSA now have her nine-year-old daughter on sleeping pills, more in the interests of the foster mother than for the child. FamiliesSA social workers say Gale's daughter is doing well in foster care. Gale asks how can she be doing well if she's put on sleeping pills at nine years of age. It isn�t hard to think that the girl will develop into a drug-dependent adolescent. Gale says most of the FamiliesSA women making decisions to take children away from their parents don�t have children themselves. 28 January 2008 Best Before September 2007 �They�re stale. Ooh, yuck,� said a woman at a Job Network Joint after biting into a packet of biscuits I�d left at the coffee urn. I�d removed the outer box so clients wouldn't see the contents were past the "Best Before" date. They were from the Wesley Uniting Christmas Hamper from Hell. �Trevor�, who lives outside, said I was ungrateful in condemning old food that was still edible. He said there was nothing wrong with it but I found the unpleasant odour of the damp biscuits unsettling and decided to give them away to the Job Network Joint crowd. But hardly anyone would touch them. Even a fat woman who looked like she�d eat anything decided to give the old biscuits a miss. Yet Trevor is adamant even after I recounted the above Job Network observation. He says that old biscuits are fine two years past the "Best Before" date. He does agree, however, that marshmallow and jam-filled biscuits can become soggy after a year or two. 28 January 2008 Big Issue Alan B. sells Big Issue in Rundle Mall. He's that tall fellow who holds four issues side by side against a piece of cardboard and wears a red hat and a tortured expression on his face. He once had a loud argument in Rundle Mall with celebrity can collector, Phil, but they now speak of each other with respect, both being trend setters in their respective work. I once had a loud argument with Alan, too. He demolished me with his logic. You may or may not be surprised at his speech. 28 January 2008 Anonymous Contributor The following was received by post some time ago. The envelope didn�t have a return address though it bore the logo, �Street To Home�. "Hi Norm Love your Social Inclusion Wars site. It�s hilarious!! You are so clever with code-names for the main players. Of course we all know who you are talking about and we all also know that it is you writing all this stuff but you cleverly try to make it look like others are contributing. The facts don�t matter - we all know there is an element of fact behind your comments but the distortions make it all the more interesting and funny. I know and have spoken to a person in DFC and 2 who work for health department. They have all seen the site after I told them about it and they too find it extremely funny. No one takes it seriously. I talk to people at Hutt St Centre and a lot are aware of what you are doing. I saw you[r] comments about the recent counting and again some clever misrepresentation of the facts, in particular complimenting Central Northern Adelaide Health Service for their help when they were not involved. I found a copy of the official summary that was released to the participating agencies and have included a copy just so you have the official version in case anyone asks. Keep up the comedy Norm - any lightheartedness around homelessness is good value to break the monotony. Regards, Giles" Received about August 2007. Posted 23 January 2008 Increased Puff, Less Housing Rosseanne Haggerty�s image appeared in the December, 2007 Social Inclusion propaganda newsletter. She was inside one of the Franklin Street Common Ground �apartments�. Did she travel to Adelaide for the singular purpose of participating in a �media event�. It would have cost $10,000 to bring her out her business class (the next Pope wouldn�t have settled for less). Why doesn�t the Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust set up a media event every time he sells off a block of 200 Trust houses to corporate developers after evicting the long-term tenants? But what really bothers me is that on page two Roseanne Haggerty looks horribly like �the next Pope�, David Cappo. http://www.socialinclusion.sa.gov.au/files/SI_Newsletter_Dec07revised.pdf 23 January 2008 What actually happened? �You�re going to pay for this. You�re going to end up doing time in the can,� shouted a woman at police last Tuesday outside the Public Trustee in Franklin Street. Four officers pulled her outside the building. She was a female Caucasian aged was about 48. She had blond hair, was a little overweight and wore a floral dress. She was yelling and swearing at them. They turned her around and pushed her towards a window and cuffed her wrists. They must suffer from daily having to experience the worst of people. Her head moved forward and her face smacked against the window. She became increasingly upset at this. How did her face smack against the window? From across the street they were partly obscured by the shadows of the building so it is hard to say precisely what occurred. Did the police officer lift his hand and push her face into the window? Her head hit the window fast but I couldn�t see if he did it. The Public Trustee plays a part in the government�s Social Inclusion program. Welfare money is deducted from a client�s bank accounts to pay for gas, electricity, phone, rent, usually in the interests of the client but sometimes despite a person�s objections. The Public Trustee deducts a bit for itself as well. 23 January 2008 Parallel Universes Reading �Stepping up Base for New Hub of Mental Health� in the abovementioned newsletter http://www.socialinclusion.sa.gov.au/files/SI_Newsletter_Dec07revised.pdf one gets a feeling of parallel universes. One universe is the �spin� from David Waterford and �the next Pope� describing the sell-off of 40% of Glenside Hospital as an improvement while the reality is Toby Garrat getting kicked out of the government psychiatric joint called Palm Lodge into a backpacker hostel then off the West Parklands to be killed. 23 January 2008 Styrofoam Advocate �D� stopped me on King William Street yesterday saying he wants it reported in this column that he believes all coffee cups used at Fred�s Van should be made of Styrofoam rather than ceramic or glass. He says he had to dodge a flying cup on Sunday night when Coastlands did the Fred�s Van. He said a woman told him that another woman had her face cut up by her boyfriend using a Fred�s Van ceramic mug. The Starvation Army use soft cups at Fred�s Van but Coastlands and St Vincent de Paul use china and glass mugs. 23 January 2008 Food Anxiety Much of the food grabbing at Fred�s Van is a symptom of food anxiety. Most people there have gone hungry and they�re also trying to pick up the next day�s breakfast. Some who have gone hungry repeatedly and lost much weight go to extremes to obtain food then hide it. 23 January 2008 Esmerelda Tabitha "Esmerelda" Collings, of Hutt Street Centre says they remind "homeless" people to fill their water bottles on hot days. Duh! Why doesn't Hutt Street Centre put a spring-loaded mains water tap outside so people can refill their bottles 24 hours a day? On one blistering December afternoon the Bryon Place Community Centre had a sign on their front window saying: No Water, Knock on Window for Nurse. 21 January 2008 The Anatomy of Political Lying The Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust, Jay Weatherill, was caught deceiving the public about the government's policy of dumping psychiatric patients in backpacker hostels (see 8 January, 2008 posting: Weatherill the Deceiver). Since then Sam Twelftree of Backpacker Oz in Wakefield Street, Adelaide has told the City Messenger newspaper of 17 January, 2008 that his hostel is still receiving calls from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Crisis Care and other agencies wanting to place patients in his hostel. So how can Jay Weatherill lie his way out of this claim? He can't so Gale Gago, a former nurse and now Mental Health Minister enters the debate. She justifies the government policy of dumping patients in dormitory and shared room holiday hostels by saying: "Given that one-in-five people suffer mental illness it's not unreasonable that people, including those with a mental illness, go on holidays and use backpacker accommodation." But the one-in-five figure includes people who work in medicine, government, welfare and dentistry that would have diagnosable mental illnesses that don't affect their ability to do their jobs. But those with "mental illness" dumped in hostels aren't workers on holiday. They're usually heavily sedated, recently discharged patients who need a safe environment; they find living in a shared-room tourist hostel with strangers very difficult. Their hands tremble, their teeth are ruined by medication, they often smell strongly; they're paranoid, usually addicted to sedatives; they're vulnerable patients, not wild young backpackers from overseas. So Gale Gago equating the "one-in-five" people with homeless and recently discharged patients is a false comparison. She deceives the public but those employed in the homeless and psychiatric field know she is lying. Nurses know she is lying. Gago has also gagged public servants in the Department of Health from speaking to the media. What a horrible culture of deceit and cover-up Gale Gago perpetuates? 21 January 2008 Bill Returns Billy has returned from one-year in Melbourne. He worked with Demi and Warren of Teen Challenge when the three of them distributed the food provided by the Jasmin Restaurant at theThursday meal in Hindmarsh Square. In those days they provided coffee and unlimited cold cordial, plus soup in winter. Bill is the sort of person around whom one feels safe and positive. The three of them added a subtle atmosphere to the fine food from the Jasmin. 21 January 2008 Anonymous Contributor The following was received by post some time ago. The envelope didn�t have a return address though it bore the logo, �Street To Home�. "Hi Norm Love your Social Inclusion Wars site. It�s hilarious!! You are so clever with code-names for the main players. Of course we all know who you are talking about and we all also know that it is you writing all this stuff but you cleverly try to make it look like others are contributing. The facts don�t matter - we all know there is an element of fact behind your comments but the distortions make it all the more interesting and funny. I know and have spoken to a person in DFC and 2 who work for health department. They have all seen the site after I told them about it and they too find it extremely funny. No one takes it seriously. I talk to people at Hutt St Centre and a lot are aware of what you are doing. I saw you[r] comments about the recent counting and again some clever misrepresentation of the facts, in particular complimenting Central Northern Adelaide Health Service for their help when they were not involved. I found a copy of the official summary that was released to the participating agencies and have included a copy just so you have the official version in case anyone asks. Keep up the comedy Norm - any lightheartedness around homelessness is good value to break the monotony. Regards, Giles" Received about August 2007. Posted 23 January 2008 Peter Bagdi Mr Peter Bagdi, of Kilburn, announced at the Adelaide Railway Station on Friday night that Hitler married Eva Braun because she made the best coffee in the bunker. 21 January 2008 Good News for Angelo Remember Angelo, the man from WestCare with kidney troubles. He would vomit in the early hours for no apparent reason. He said he'll go to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for either kidney surgery or the tube up the urinary tract procedure in early February. The delay in getting treatment has probably made it worse but it is good he'll be having the treatment at last. He has retained his dignity through the whole year of waiting. 21 January 2008 Increased demand at Fred's Van "It's the same amount of food but more people," a man said explaining why there isn't enough food at Fred's Van on some nights. It's true. Numbers are much greater, partly bolstered by the Christmas and New Year's crisis of new homeless people plus the summer migration of Anangu from Ernabella and Alice Springs. 21 January 2008 WorkCover A government contracted employee told me last week he was formerly a welding supervisor at the Submarine Factory at Outer Harbour, when he suffered a neck injury. He was in hospital for three months then rehabilitated and trained via WorkCover funding so he is now qualified in another trade at which he currently works. "You beat the system," a WorkCover employee told him two years after the injury. "How?" the man asked. The WorkCover employee explained that to avoid the expense of rehabilitating and re-training injured workers WorkCover tries to break their spirit so they'll simply walk away. The re-trained man said he remembered that during and after his three months in hospital WorkCover employees visited him saying there wasn't anything the matter with him. Yes, he beat the system and despite having a 40% disability rating he works full time, using his brain, and pays taxes instead of shuffling about on an invalid pension. 21 January 2008 Journalism and Common Ground A major media outlet journalist told me that his income is apparently low enough to qualify as a resident at the Common Ground Bus Station units. 21 January 2008 Carl on the Warpath Not only is the WestCare cook reported to be out to get me but her "ex", according to two diners at Fred's Van, is similarly motivated. "Is he big?" I asked my informants. "He's out here," one said, stretching his arms out wide. "Is he dangerous?" "He's wild." 21 January 2008 Myer Centre Food Court Security Guards "D", the Elvis-look-alike diner seen at most "homeless" joints in Adelaide says security guards follow him about at the Myer Centre Food Court. Why? It is possibly because he sits at the tables without buying anything? They follow me through the food court as well. Why? Maybe my flannelette shirt creates suspicion. Who wears these types of eight-dollar shirts except drug addicts and others who expect to sleep in their clothing? "D" says he's thinking of becoming a hairdresser. This is worrying considering that he wears long sideburns so he won't cut his ears while shaving. 21 January 2008 Media Mike "I lost respect for him at Christmas at Hutt Street. Sure, it was alright to hand out meals but to bring the media, that's not on. I can't forgive him for that." The above was overheard during a conversation between two older men in the city. 14 January 2008 Trans Adelaide Phil, the celebrity Can Collector, said he'd received a letter from Trans Adelaide saying it wasn't illegal to carry bags of cans on the train. Trans Adelaide was ominously silent about the fridge trolley carrying the bags. 14 January 2008 Sodoku Addict "Trevor", the man who lives outside, stopped while we were walking down Pirie Street. He began looking in rubbish bins for newspapers. He found half a dozen then ripped out the Sodoku pages. Medium and Hard he took but the Easy puzzles he threw back in. No challenge. 14 January 2008 Burner returns from Sydney �Jed�, who displays a deft hand with meths and matches, returned from Sydney yesterday. He appeared in fine spirits and was talking pleasantly to the regulars at Fred�s Van, (including one of his victims). He was looking healthy and said he returned to Adelaide to briefly appear in court, but upon leaving the court two police officers slapped handcuffs on his wrists and he spent the day resting in a cell. It did him the world of good. His calmness evaporated the next evening when he was in volatile spirits. John from the Sudan entered the scene complaining that police had put him into handcuffs that day so "Jed" welcomed him as a lost son returning home. John, aka "Jimmy from Uganda"; "Kevin Rudd", carries an aura of humour whilst "Jed" and most Aboriginals in the homeless scene are bristling with resentment and "payback". They haven't forgotten or forgiven. 14 January 2008 Correction of Mistake Some time ago I said that, Mark, the old guy with a white beard who rides a bicycle and does voluntary work paid 60% of his gross income on rent. He corrected me yesterday saying he paid 70% and it was going up to 81% next month due to a rent increase. 14 January 2008 Calder�s sense of humour Greg Calder, the short-fused manager of the psychiatric agency, Street-to-home showed he wasn�t simply the humourless thug that he appears to be. He said in the City Messenger Newspaper that outreach workers took extra water to rough sleepers every morning. Then, to prove he had a sense of humour, he added, �But obviously we don�t see everybody.� 14 January 2008 Homelessness up One You can hear �T� phoning Peter Goers on 5AN to talk about football. Last week "T" vacated his unit and now lives outside. He didn�t specify the reasons for leaving. Someone suggested he stay at St Vinnies Night Shelter or Lady Adolph�s East Park Lodge. He replied they wanted too much personal information plus his permission for them to contact his doctor. So he�s staying outside. �Rough sleepers� previously stayed at homeless shelters for a few weeks, few questions asked. Those days are gone. These joints now require that prospective residents sign away privacy rights so the shelter staff can contact doctors, social workers, Centrelink, etc. This is called Social Inclusion and in the case of �T� means that he's continuing to live outside because of Social Inclusion rather than being helped by it. 14 January 2008 Quality Assessment Three men were talking at Fred's Van. One said he gained more rehabilitation from three-weeks in the Salvation Army Towards Independence place than three months at the Woolshed. He said they treated him like a fool at the WoolShed with too many rules. He said the Salvation Army treated him like a human being. He said three years ago he had a job, a house, a family and then lost it all. He said it could happen to anyone. He admitted to the other two men that drinking alcohol had been a problem. His speech was full of positive thoughts and he belittled no one present or absent. 14 January 2008 Starvation Army The bread ran out before the hot dogs (frankfurts) at the Salvo Fred's Van meal last Friday night. "Isn't that just f**king typical?" someone shouted as people were handed hot wieners. One black man was wearing red flesh where his black skin had been ripped away. A white woman had a huge abrasion on her waist. Police Security were present. The "derro" ambulance (Emergency Medical Technician) was there One regular diner said he'd back me up at WestCare because the cook was out to get me. Another person advised me to avoid WestCare because the cook was out to get me. I hope the Emergency Medical Technician ambulance starts hanging around WestCare. 14 January 2008 Real Indians Real Indians delivered the rice and curry for the Thursday, 3 January Fred's Van meal. I'd always thought that white folk pretending to be Indians cooked it, but no, they were genuine authentic Indians. "Wow, real Indians," I exclaimed a little loudly. "That's pretty obvious," Trevor said, drinking coffee under a tree. "Real Indians," I repeated to others present as one of the Indians looked up, smiling. 14 January 2008 Yet More �Incidents� at Fred�s Van Policy Security officers watched the Fred�s Van meal last night. John Lamprell, the St Vinnies organiser of the meal service said there had been �incidents� on the last four meals done by St Vincent de Paul. One man from a different clan group said it was the mob from Ernabella causing the trouble. He said they probably got kicked out of there then went to Alice Springs where they had more trouble then came down here because they�re guaranteed a feed every day in Adelaide. I asked some of them if they were the Evil Warriors or Judas Priest. They said they weren�t the former and didn�t want to talk about the latter. Numbers at Fred�s Van were higher than ever and the food ran out iin fifteen-minutes while numbers at the Teen Challenge meal in Hindmarsh Square are low, down from a previous high of 80 to about 32. 8 January 2008 Home |
