Homeless Gossip in Adelaide

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Messages posted from 11 March 2008 to 16 Aprl 2008
The most recent message appears at the top. Updated 16 April 2008

Paying for your neighbours' excess water use

Jay Weatherill, the Minister for Destroying the Housing Trust, has announced that HousingSA tenants who live in blocks of flats or groups of units where there is just one water metre will have to pay a portion of excess water used by other tenants.

Where twenty flats or units are on one metre each tenancy will pay for one-twentieth of excess water charges regardless of who used the excess water.

This is similar to strata title units on single metres however amongst HousingSA tenants there is often strange behaviour. I've seen one tenant leave a shower going 24-hours a day to make burglars think someone was at home. Another tenant used 450 kilolitres of water in one-month to offset poisons dumped on his lawn by Housing Trust staff. (This latter example was me, actually.)

Weatherill says single household metres will eventually be installed on all HousingSA units within a few years. But in the meantime tenants who use water sparsely will pay for the 24-hour shower man and people like me. It isn't fair.
14 April 2008

Weatherill not all bad

I've written this before but yesterday a novel writer reminded me that he once took his unpublished manuscript to Jay Weatherill's electorate office. An assistant to Weatherill typed it onto a disk from longhand then printed multiple paper copies for the writer who isn't even in Weatherill's electorate area.
14 April 2008

Five Foot Bags

A woman can collector at Fred's Van told Phil, the celebrity can collector, that Go-Lo and the Reject Shop were selling five-foot striped "derro" bags for three dollars. (She didn't call them "derro" bags).

Another person in the food queue said that you could draw the bag over yourself on a rainy night and stay dry.

One can imagine the �short fuse� from Street-to-home reacting to this information: Gregory Calder running to Go-Lo, ordering a hundred three-dollar bags, rushing about the parklands throwing the flattened bags here and there just like back in his frisby days.

Any �rough sleeper� picking up a bag could then be classed as �having found accommodation�.
14 April 2008

Crazy Cottage

Can Collector Tony, from Sister Betty's Crazy Cottage, (he isn't crazy), is being admitted into hospital this week for exploratory procedures. It isn't related to Tony's three strokes. Good luck Tony.
14 April 2008

Minister for Transport writes to the Homeless Gossip Column

Patrick Conlon responded in a letter dated 24 March 2008 to Trans Adelaide excluding celebrity can collector Phil from trains when he was accompanied by his fridge trolley loaded with striped "derro" bags full of deposit cans. He said, in part:

"�I have sympathy for Mr ****'s situation however I am advised that his trolley is considered a dangerous and/or offensive item and is therefore prohibited under the Passenger Transport Act and Regulations. TransAdelaide has advised that there are several reasons for this:

� The laden trolley is large and cumbersome and poses a hazard to other passengers as well as TransAdelaide staff: it is a trip hazard; it restricts movement and could block exits thereby providing an additional danger in any emergency;
� Spillage from bottles and cans poses a slip hazard;
� Besides unpleasant odours, the bottles also pose safety concerns should they contain insects such as European wasps, which could become loose in a railcard."

Yet Patrick Conlon's reasons for social excluding Phil from the trains is contradicted by what he said back on 29 November 2007, on the "Mornings" program on ABC Radio 5AN with Mathew Abraham and David Bevan: "�you know, you can take cans, you can take bags on trains." It seems the real reason for excluding Phil is that the government wants to stop Can Collectors from carrying their cans on trains and, possibly, to use this as a weapon to discourage them from collecting cans at all.

And Conlon's reasons for excluding Can Collectors and their fridge trolleys should be seen in the context of what is tolerated on trains:

1) drunks, no problems.
2) passengers putting their feet on seats: guards may ask offenders to take their feet off seats but generally they say nothing.
3) passengers eating and drinking and spilling food on the floor and seats: no problems.
4) drug dealing on trains: no problems. I've seen it happen and guards didn't say a word nor asked police be there when we reached Adelaide station.
5) healthy passengers hogging three seats thus forcing older and weaker people stand up: no problems.
6) threatening behaviour: no problems unless it is against Trans Adelaide staff.

What we need is a social inclusion commission with a brave commissioner who stands up for those without influence in government circles, rather than the media strutting "next Pope" who puts the word "I" into almost every sentence he utters.
11 April 2008

The SwagMan Can Collector

Phil, the innovative Celebrity Can Collector has been upstaged by the SwagMan from Elizabeth who has worked around TransAdelaide's social exclusion policy by replacing his fridge trolley with a golf cart.

"It's a miracle," he told me last week in Woolworths at Elizabeth when I congratulated him on his lateral thinking. He said he made enough in cans that day to buy food for that day, and enough the day before to also buy food for that day. "They're raising the deposit to ten-cents," he said, adding, "Miracles happen."

You can spot the swag man collector by his wide-brimmed hat with its corks and do-dads dangling from strings as he stands near the carriage doorway, waving to boarding and alighting train passengers. "It's a miracle," he might add to no one in particular, as if contemplating life itself.
11 April 2008

Waste Not Want Not

PJ was seen at Fred's Van putting three half-eaten bowls of rice and curry into one bowl then eating the lot. This was despite having gotten a container of superior Jasmin Restaurant food an hour before that he had placed in safe-keeping with Sam.

"Ugh," said Ali, the Sudanese man when the scene was recounted to him. "There could have been flies on it."
"Or Hepatitis A," I added, each of us projecting our personal fears.

Neither of us understood the survival imperative of PJ's actions where overcoming culinary squeamishness is a prerequisite for a life on the streets - especially when you don't have a financial income. PJ is a worldly wise, sharp witted man of nearly seventy-years-old and would make a superb mentor for many younger street people staggering from day to day, from one disaster to another.
11 April 2008

Ken Henderson

I saw Ken Henderson last week at Anglicare in beautiful downtown Elizabeth North, where he works. Ken is a veteran from the WestCare Baptist homeless centre in Wright Street near Whitmore Square.

Ken was still looking very Ken Henderson-ish though his slightly fatter and older look-alike replacement at WestCare is beginning to look more like Ken Henderson than Ken himself. They both look bright and one feels energised in their presence though the look-alike Ken has a certain disguise artist countenance.
11 April 2008

Typical Scam Letter

We've all received those smooth talking Nigerian scam emails promising a share in the haul from a deceased estate. Another though less visible tool in the arsenal of the smooth talking scammers is violent criminality.

Below is a progressive scam email from convicted fraudster, John Andrew Green, formerly of Barmera in the South Australian Riverland, to a na�ve partially disabled benefactor. Green obtained $1400 the day before and in the following email tries to get another $1600.

The email didn't work so Green followed the man to the library of the Disability Information and Resource Centre. Green got down on his knees and with tears flowing down his face begged for the further $1600 to buy a car for his son, Mitchell, 18. There wasn't, of course, any car and it is doubtful there is an eighteen-year-old "Mitchell".

Green's tearful display was followed a few weeks later by him providing money to a homeless man to dissuade the partially disabled lender from simply asking for repayment. The dispute hasn't ended and last month the athletic Green punched the disabled man in the teeth in the ground floor toilets of the State Library building.

From :
john green <[email protected]>

"Hi ******,

I need another favour, a big one.

Went with my boy to get the car last evening and when we were there the bloke had another vehicle for sale. It was a much better car, condition and age but it was $3800, I took that car instead of the Camira ($2200). It means I am $1600 short, can I add that to what you loaned me yesterday and owe you $3000. I know that is a big ask but I could pay it back by Thursday next week and I will add $200 for interest and you time and effort. I am in a spot and if you could help I would appreciate that so much.

The next problem is that I am not in the city today. I am with my boy and I need to go and pay the balance for the car. The dealer let me have it last night but I need to get it paid asap, this morning if possible. I also need to register and arrange some insurance as well. To register the vehicle in my name I need a licence so I will try to arrange that today as well. My boy will come with me to drive me around, if I don't have a licence it could be a bit risky driving myself too far.

This means as I said I am not in the city. So, if you can help with the extra $1600 until next week (Thursday) then I would need you to go to an Adelaide Bank branch to deposit it into my account. I know that is another big ask but I am in a really tight spot, odd really when you consider my funds of today sitting unopened and my last few years of battling on nothing. But there it is, if you can help with the extra loan and make the deposit I would be ever grateful.

My bank account details are listed below.

Adelaide Bank
A/C Name: John Andrew Green
BSB: 601-101
A/C number: 070974920
(It is a Merlin Account but mark cheque on the deposit slip if they need that infomation)

Adelaide Bank has city branches on King William Street (by Grenfell Street), Gawler Place (By City Cross) and on Pirie Street by The Otherway Centre.

Thanks so much *****, that's one I owe you, it is a big ask but I appreciate your help in this tight and odd situation.

Regards,
John [Andrew Green]

North Terrace Light Display

"Trevor" and I spent thirty-minutes on North Terrace after Fred's Van last week. He explained the creation of the film used for the projector that displayed images on the Institute, Museum and other buildings. He described the technical expertise needed to colour and align the images so they fitted perfectly into the nooks and crannies and created that 3-D illusion.
"Now you'll have something more to write about than homelessness," he said as we parted.
"Huh," I called back.
9 April 2008

Fred's Van staff perspective

A white-haired veteran volunteer at Fred's Van was heard saying that the key reason for him working at Fred's Van was gratitude from the customers.

Customers do feel gratitude and respect for the unpaid workers. Even thugs, when they decide to smash a stranger in the face, carefully avoid choosing a Fred's Van worker as their victim.

Another Fred's Van worker said her time at Fred's Van once every three weeks was sometimes the most important part of her three weeks.

Last Thursday was a pleasant night at Fred's Van. There were twenty desert Aboriginals sitting on the pine chips who created a mood that might be summed up as: this is how life should be.
9 April 2008

The Ghost

"If there's a free meal in Adelaide he knows where it is," said "B" about The-Ghost-Who-Walks.
9 April 2008

She won�t touch chemical anti-depressants

"D" is worried that his girlfriend won't use the medication prescribed by her doctor. "I don't know what's wrong with that girl," he said about his 61-year-old girlfriend.

"B" was listening to "D" talk about his troubled life. He's recently finished his Care Worker course, but in the proximity of "D's" staccato monologue he looked as if he wanted to return to his previous metal fabrication career. "D" has that intense anxiety of someone in deep depression. He'd could play the "funny guy" in a comedy duo.
9 April 2008

Dangerous Client

One of the hard men in the Adelaide homeless scene was jumping amongst the Fred's Van crowd pretending he was a bunny rabbit. Staff distributed scarves and beanies for the approaching cooler weather and the "hard man" got a pastel green beanie with ears. He later decided the colour didn't suit his deathly pallor so he gave it to a teenage girl who looked quite fetching in it.
9 April 2008

Rough treatment of volunteers

Anna hasn't been to Chat'n'Chew at UnitingCare Wesley Port Adelaide for the past few months. She volunteered in the kitchen.

Chat'n'Chew is a fortnightly free meal served at the Family Centre of UnitingCare Wesley Port Adelaide. It's for disabled people, their friends and relatives.

Anna was in K-Mart yesterday and told me management kicked her out because of complaints made against her. She said the complaints weren't from diners but rather from "outside" people.

Neil Trotter invited me to Chat'n'Chew in 2001 when I was living under trees on the mud flats near the submarine factory, saying, "You seem like the type of bloke who likes a free feed." Anna was there then.

But what about Anna? You can see her at many disability functions doing unpaid work, that is, when she isn't working for three-dollars an hour at Port Partnerships, another Wesley project. In the Chat'n'Chew kitchen she's a sixty-year-old powerhouse of energy who some find intimidating while others are energised by her presence. She's brusque, opinionated, entertaining, hard working and certainly not bitter or vicious. However, when I asked two diners at last week's meal about Anna's departure, they expressed satisfaction that she had left.

After getting kicked out Anna advised management she'd return as a guest to the meal but the social worker in charge forbade that, Anna told me. This is despite Anna fitting the criteria for being allowed to attend, especially when compared to an interloper like myself.

Tracy, the paid cook, has also missed the last four meals, apparently because she was being undermined by management despite producing good meals under budget. She, too, worked unpaid for years before replacing the former cook.

Paid social worker staff recently introduced a new rule banning diners from entering the kitchen due to Health and Safety rules despite the fact that socialising at the meal is recognised as a major therapeutic tool for people who lead isolated lives in abandonment and poverty. This new barrier makes it difficult for diners to speak to the kitchen staff except when they're delivering meals to the tables in the dinning room - the friendliness of the occasion has been weakened.

I worked unpaid in the 1970's and was treated like royalty by both paid workers and by numerous Boards of Directors. But in 2008 volunteers are treated similarly to work-for-the-dole and day-release prisoners, as if their involvement is compulsory rather than voluntary - as if volunteering in itself indicates some social or personal deficiency.

Anna finished her seven years in the kitchen without any expression of gratitude by UnitingCare Wesley Port Adelaide, without any gift, without a farewell mention and of course, without super annuity or holiday pay. It was like: we don't need you anymore so leave.
7 April 2008

Empty Trolleys Not Allowed

Trans Adelaide staff prevented Phil, the Celebrity Can Collector from boarding the train with his empty fridge trolley last week. He has recently been shifting his stuff after being given notice to move from his expensive rented house in Woodville. "I was only going two stations," Phil said, astounded. He walked.
7 April 2008

Riders in the Storm

�I don�t have anything medically wrong except my glands are f**ked and I have to take ten pills a day for the rest of my life. They could cut them out but I�d swell up like a ballon.�

A thin fellow at Fred�s Van with his wife and three kids.
4 April 2008

Man living outside gets lens replacement

The man in his fifties living outside because welfare housing won't rent him accommodation because he won't provide names of his doctor and family, and give bureaucrats permission to contact them, has undergone eye surgery. The natural lens on his blind eye has been replaced by an artificial lens, but complications have set in.

He said he's got to see the surgeon tomorrow, possibly for more surgery because the bleeding won't stop. He asked the woman coffee server at Fred's Van to put drops in his eyes.

Apart from the bleeding he said the sight in his previously blind eye is better than that given to him by God.

It isn't known if he's living outside still but he certainly continues to dine at Fred's Van.
2 April 2008

Pisspots

"Was there much trouble at Fred's Van last week?" I asked Trevor.
"Yep," he replied
"Aboriginals?"
"Not Aboriginals. Pisspot Aboriginals. They're not all pisspots," he emphasised.
2 April 2008

What month is it?

A man at the Otherway Centre told me that he found a watch on the street. "It shows the day of the month but not the month," he said, adding, "That's alright. I don't need to know what month it is. Doesn't make any difference though I know, roughly, that it's June or July."

He said this in March, that is, last week. This man has more integrity than myself, more than most church and bureaucracy bosses I've met. He thinks rationally, hasn't a history of mental illness, drug or alcohol use, but he lives independently of the control mechanisms that force the rest of us to live by a timepiece, and to the morality of nameless others. He lives outside and has found his place on this earth.
2 April 2008

Violent thugs usually escape the law

"D" said a thug hit him while he was buying a Multitrip bus ticket last week. The man asked for a dollar and "D" told him to "piss off". The man smacked "D" who suffers extreme balancing problems: he can hardly walk. A bystander asked the thug if he wanted a fight, but like most thugs he slunk away when confronted by an able-bodied opponent.

"D" said it was the same fellow who hit him at Fred's Van. He asked us if he should go to the police. Only if you have visible injuries, or are bleeding, need hospital treatment or suffer trauma as evidenced by a psychiatrist, the Teen Challenge worker told "D".
"Huh?" replied "D"
2 April 2008

The good side of social inclusion

The partially disabled man punched in the teeth by John Green in the State Library toilets last month presented at the Emergency Department at the Lyell McEwin Hospital a few days previously. He had inflamed knee joints due to a chronic condition and now walks with a temporary walking frame. He said that:

"There were a few A4-sized pages stuck on the staff notice board showing how to identify homeless people and to call Kate or Sarah when they treated one. The notice board was in the waiting room so patients could also see there might be some added benefit to admitting they lived outside or in dangerous accommodation. The Nurse Facilitator asked me quite a few questions about my accommodation because their data base records me on a previous visit as being "homeless". The medical treatment was terrific and they treated me as if I was a human with a brain and emotions and not merely a piece of meat."
31 March 2008

Whatever happened to �?

The dyed-hair woman is bundled in her Sunday best long coat from the 1950s as she sits tensely in the courtyard on this 40 degree day. A wide-brimmed hat covers her head and her bulging bag waits next to her chair. The courtyard is enclosed in fences too high for teenage ferals to surmount. The shut gate isn't locked but its hidden latch would fool many trying to enter, or exit.

Her eyes follow me like a surveillance camera in Rundle Mall as I walk down First Street at Brompton. She raises her hand as I nod acknowledgement. Am I her rescuer? No, I turn into the pokies joint that offers free lunch if you change $30 into coin.

It's a mystery to many what happens to the old timers in the homeless scene; those dipsomaniacs or simply humans who've been overtaken by the fog that clears the mind of yesterday and today and tomorrow but leaves the rich memories of their youths untouched.

Government social inclusion bureaucrats save them from the ravages of life under trees, rotting in dirty hotels and rooming houses, or simply lost in their own homes. They're shipped out via the Public Trustee, to places like Ian George Court in Brompton where they live a safe life in limbo.

After my free lunch and with thirty one-dollar coins weighing down my pocket I trudge past the old lady, wave again and crunch my way up the sharp shale railway bed to the city for coffee at the Otherway Centre.

Tomorrow I'll exchange the coins for notes at the Talbot Hotel near the Central Markets then crunch my way back down the railway line to the Brompton pokies joint for another free lunch. I know my new friend will be there, still waiting for her lift.
20 March 2008
Posted 31 March 2008

Back in the old days

Gunfire was heard at the Magdalene Centre free Saturday meal back in 1993 according to Anton K of Beaumont. He provoked the church minister by saying that the food quality failed to meet his Beaumont standards. The minister turned away as if sneakily pulling a derringer from his coat then a gunshot sounded as hot air puffed out the back of his trousers. Anton said it was a strange restaurant.
31 March 2008

Chain Gang Boss Speaks Out

Mark Herselman, the state director of Mission Australia spoke on ABC radio, 5AN, last week about those living outside during the recent record breaking heat wave. He said:

"A number of our clients started presenting with all the symptoms of heat stress, dehydration, heat stroke, severe sunburn�yeah, well�there was a young lady virtually staying, well, she was staying in her car for about four or five nights. She just couldn't deal with it anymore. When we saw her she was severely dehydrated, heat stressed and, um, not pretty�a lot of agencies such as ourselves do take, I guess, action and provide, uh, these people with water and sort of sunscreen and try to find temporary accommodation for them."

"I think what we'd like to do over the winter is to talk to the Adelaide City Council and the state government about preparing some sort of, uh, emerging plan for any heat waves that converge next year. We'll see."

Mission Australia is best known for running the federally funded Work for the dole programs. Some church agencies won't accept these lucrative government contracts because it necessitates kicking people off the dole who are already the poorest in the country.
31 March 2008

Bunfight at the Magdalene Coral

The long simmering feud between "C", a high-powered scrap collector and the veteran ,"The Removalist", peaked at last Saturday's free Magdalene Centre evening meal. "C" threw a bun at The Removalist who jumped from his chair and ran over to punch "C" in the head.

Staff ordered "C" from the premises, presumably because he threw the first bun and is a generation younger than The Removalist.

Insiders say their feud began two years previously at the Otherway Centre Christmas barbecue. "C" and the Ghost-who-walks along with The Removalist were clearing the place of anything edible as if they'd been contracted to empty the joint. The Removalist was caught in the act and drew attention to the others and, red faced, they returned their booty to the hall. "C", apparently, has never forgiven The Removalist for the humiliation while the latter won't accept a smidgin of blame. Thus the feud continues. The sad part is that both are respected in the scavenger scene and could almost be father and son - Steptoe and son.
25 March 2008

$100 for nine days work

Ali is a quietly spoken Sudanese-Australian man of fragile appearance who recently worked nine days for Solitaire Automotive at Mile End where he washed Jaguar, Volvo and Volkswagen cars. He was referred to Solitaire by Job Prospects, a Job Network Member in Currie Street, Adelaide. There was an alleged agreement that Job Prospects would pay part of his wages for the first six weeks. After nine days of washing cars Ali was paid just $100.

Ali said Job Prospects are backing away from the wage subsidy agreement and want him to forget the disappointing wages and start another job.

But Ali has made a complaint with the employee Ombudsman though he doesn't expect a resolution for quite some time.

He was visibly shattered by his experience.
25 March 2008

Changing their tune

After one-year of claiming that the Common Ground Bus Station units would include a mix of homeless people, artists and students the latest pronouncement is that 34 of the 37 units will be occupied by "single homeless" people.

Whatever happened to all those "artists and students" that were scheduled to move in? Did they receive shock emails saying: "Don't pack your bags just yet"?

What isn't clear is what percentage of these 34 "single homeless" tenants actually lived outside before moving into the Bus Station Units. It appears most have been living in other accommodation but conveniently reclassed as being "at risk of homelessness". We already know homeless housing agencies prefer housing those already in accommodation rather than people living outside. They disguise this fact by reclassifying the already housed tenants as being "at risk of homelessness". Perhaps the new tenants for the Bus Station units have been reclassified from "artists and students" to people "at risk of homelessness". This subterfuge would suit Common Ground's latest media statements but such lack of transparency must surely breed corruption.

The Bus Station units cost $6.1 million, which was paid for by the South Australian government. Ikea provided the furniture. Sir Theo Kalamaras' role in the Bus Station units isn't clear except him getting an Australian Day award for his involvement.

What isn't disputable is that the project has been a bonanza for bureaucrats prying into the personal lives of 146 people who have tried to rent one of the units: all the paperwork, the interviews, the false promises and the additions to the secret Homeless Register data base.
25 March 2008

Prayers at WestCare

Prayers were held at WestCare asking that "attacks" on them, (including from this gossip column), stop. The prayers worked.

One person suggested they also pray for better efficiency in the kitchen. That caused a momentary stir, but thing are smoothing out.

What remains to be seen is whether the whistleblowers will be excluded from welfare services for alerting this gossip column of strife in the kitchen. My experience with WestCare over the previous three decades indicates they'll probably not seek revenge on the whistleblowers.
25 March 2008

A sharp question

�re you trying to shut it down?" asked B. at the Teen Challenge meal last Thursday. He was referring to critical comments on this gossip column of Fred's Van.
"No," I replied.

Dr "X" has since confirmed that Fred's Van has been given notice, officially, to find another place to serve meals. They have, I believe, 12-months notice.
20 March 2008

Methods of Self-Empowerment

"About time you did some work, John? shouted the woman known as "The Chook" to a maintenance employee in Railway Arcade that runs from the railway station to Hindley Street. His body stiffened as he pretended to ignore her. The Chook's attention wandered to the scarf display next to the massage joint as her boyfriend's arm encircled her waste.

The Chook eats at Fred's Van and resembles Rachel, the five-tooth woman who dines with Teen Challenge and the Jasmin Restaurant on Thursdays. "About time you did some work," Rachel regularly admonishes employees in her loud voice in the city council library on North Terrace. They're both rough women who walk around Adelaide with their backs straight and heads held high.
20 March 2008

Danger at Fred's Van

"It's too scary," "A" said, about Fred's Van.
"Not worth getting beat up for a meal?" I suggested.
"Exactly," he said. "A" was smiling broadly in expectation of his date with two women that evening and he didn't know what would happen.
20 March 2008

Another experience of WestCare

"My experience of WestCare since 1987 has been good. I eat there on occasional Fridays for fish and chips though there should be vinegar with the meal. The dining areas are roomy and they let you sit where you want, not crowded together at the tables like at Hutt Street. WestCare don't demand to see ID, either, from diners eating their two-dollar meal as do staff at Hutt Street Centre.

"Joe de Souza often plays the piano while we eat and Centrelink employees hang out in the back room on Fridays. They're kind and decent at WestCare before doing a Jekyll and Hyde switch upon returning to the Currie Street Centrelink office.

"The toilets make me nervous, however, like visiting Germ Central. But in the balance I'm surprised at the level and multitude of complaints from diners about ****, the cook."
18 March 2008

Firing on all one cylinder

Rex Jory, from the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper is rumoured to be firing on all one cylinder. My informant says he�s been advised to reduce his food intake or go for long walks.
18 March 2008

The Streets are paved with gold?

There was a tinkling of coins rolling down the street opposite the RAA building last week, possibly thrown from a car. Two smiling can collectors collected them while a woman took pictures from across the street. Don, another collector, said he doesn't perform tricks and left the coins alone.
14 March 2008

No Teeth

We were talking at the Teen Challenge meal about scam artist John Green punching the partially disabled man in the library toilets. Two men both opened their mouths to show no teeth at all. "At least you don't have to worry about getting them punched out," one laughed. They're both on dental waiting lists but it takes years to see a cheapo government dentist then another two years to get dentures. It's sort of sad.
14 March 2008

Pathos

"The government is trying to sell off the parklands," said a man living outside, last week. "It's pathetic."
14 March 2008

Common Ground Bus Station "Studio Apartments"

"T.O.", recently living in his car, said the Common Ground Bus Station units were already full. He said two people had already left. He was referring to the "homeless" component of the units. The majority of units are still empty and they will eventually be occupied by artists and students. T.O. also said no druggies will be allowed to live in the Bus Station units but they'll go to the new project in Light Square, when it's completed: Glenside-in-the-city.

You'd think Jo Wickes or Sally "Our Sal" Langton of HomelessnessSA would be up-in-arms over the fact that most of the Bus Station units won't be for "homeless" people. You'd think they'd be talking to the media. You'd think Ian Cox of Hutt Street Centre or Marj at Byron Place would be shouting from the rooves. You'd think�
14 March 2008

PJ's bedding slashed

PJ went "home" to his campsite one night last week and found his bedding and clothing slashed. "Even my pillow," he said.
14 March 2008

Food Round-up

Jasmin Restaurant

George, the chef from the Jasmin Restaurant was telling Mark, the grey bearded cyclist who pays 80% of his income on rent, that he couldn't make up a special meal for him because then everyone who came late would want one. George was dressed in black instead of his usual white.

The system, as it stands, is that people collect tickets from the Teen Challenge fellow from 4:40pm to 5:45pm; George then takes the tickets back to the Jasmin and fills that amount of meals in plastic containers. The Jasmin do this so no food is wasted, which was what happened last year.

The Jasmin food distributed to homeless-style people is the same quality as that served in their restaurant at $23 for a main course. "I don't know how they keep it up," one man living outside said last Thursday. The meal was prawns, fish, curried rice, and lightly fried cauliflower, carrots and other vegetables. Teen Challenge contributed the cordial but it ran out. That wouldn't have happened in Warren's and Demi's day. Mark, the 80% cyclist got up for a second cup of cordial but returned with a chunk of ice that he promptly dropped onto the footpath. He picked it up, wiped off the dirt and grass and began eating it.

Fred's Van

The rice and curry made by Real Indians for Fred's Van each Thursday ran out before everyone had gotten a serving two weeks ago but last Thursday there was enough for everyone. The Bags were a little light.

Loud Aboriginals highlighted the evening by spreading out across the courtyard. Their shouting and movement was as if they were mimicking their behaviour during a Kangaroo hunt - spreading over the land and closing in on their prey. They enlivened the atmosphere so even us dour white folk were affected and became freer and more animated. These Aboriginals were a welcome new crowd in town.

The teenage Aboriginal who can do bird whistles better than the birds themselves became wild when The Bags momentarily ran out. He tried to humbug a Bag from a white fella until distracted by a six-year-old with a lime coloured ball. They threw it back and forth while a new box of Bags came from the Van. The white fella, the-ghost-who-walks and I all offered the teenager a bag each, which confused the hell out of him and he gave them all away. Everyone seemed happy from the transactions.

"C", the scrap collector, and The Removalist continued their long running feud. Last week the Removalist called "C" "a parasite" and the latter responded by calling The Removalist "a loser", and threw a paper bag at him. This week "C" called The Removalist a "retard" whilst the latter responded again by calling "C" a "parasite".

The blond woman serving the food became distraught after someone threw their food straight into the rubbish bin. She corrected herself, saying she shouldn't respond like that. She wears Kevin 07 glasses and is always a pleasure to meet.

Last Monday six patrol cars and two ambulances were called to the Fred�s Van meal after fighting broke out.
14 March 2008

Australia Day Honours

The list of Australia Day awards often leave people dismayed. Why are those who work for years, even decades for Fred's Van and other homeless services ignored while the likes of John Friedrich, Sir Theo Kalamaras, and The Next Pope given awards?

The reason is that awards are given mostly to "Movers and Shakers", those with power and influence. They're not necessarily good humans but rather influential citizens or at least useful to those with power.
14 March 2008

WestCare Homeless Centre Saga continues

Client 1 Reports

"Take out your notebook," a commanding voice ordered as I slumped seizure-like on a Rundle Mall bench on a hot day last week. The voice began: "Tuesday, 4th of March, 2008 at "WestCare, ****, the so-called Chef, was handling plates and serving meals without wearing gloves. On Thursday: handling desert with glove on left hand, none on right. John, in charge, never said anything about her not wearing gloves. Others [in the kitchen] had gloves."

Client 2 Reports

"The cook brings in this huge amount of food to the Art Space on Wednesdays and sits there and gorges," said a WestCare client not previously quoted on this gossip column.

Client 3 (kicked out for one-month)

"You got it wrong last week. They didn't kick me out. They said either apologise to **** [the cook] or leave voluntarily for a month." [He chose the latter].

The Manager's Viewpoint

Hi *****,

"I am happy to chat with you generally about issues.
A staff member felt she was being harrassed by a client and I must
take this seriously.
The client decided to take a holiday for a nominated period.
The details you printed were inaccurate. We gave chocolate out, as our
policy is to offer in the yard whatever Foodbank offers us for our
clients. So we did this. We also give out buns and cakes and bread.
There were no timing issues that is our work, and it was given out on
a different day to the routine health inspection. And plastic gloves
for food handlers are enforced at Westcare precisely because they
allow staff to handle food."

Cheers John [Hannaford]
Westcare Day centre Coordinator

Client 4 (about infections spread from the cook's ungloved hand)

"They're putting out lives at risk; you don't know where her hands have been."

And the same client comments on the man who left for one-month for criticising the cook.

"I don't see how anyone should have to leave for a month because everyone should have the right to free speech. The cook, in my opinion, has paranoia."

And on the WestCare cook's ability

"I've worked in a lot of restaurants and they reckon there's an art to cooking and she ain't got it�the woman at Hutt Street is a brilliant cook. She 100% better than ****."
Posted 11 March 2008

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