| Home Archived by the National Library of Australia Homeless Hot Gossip 9 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 18 April 2008 to 11 August 2008 The most recent message appears at the top. Two Trojan Horses starring David Cappo as the Land Broker So what was �social inclusion� all about An approximately sixty-year-old man in poor health, currently living outside, has been on the HousingSA waiting list for over ten years. He has been on Category 1 for about two years. Despite frequent requests for information, HousingSA won�t give any indication when housing will be rented to this man in the near future. He said he�s been listening on his small transistor radio to Social Inclusion Commissioner David Cappo talking about reduced �homeless� numbers for years. 11 August 2008 Waiting lists are exclusion lists Another young youth worker told me her imperatives were getting people at risk into accommodation, protection, training, whatever, immediately, to help them survive. �What about the waiting lists?� I asked. She laughed saying that waiting lists are dumping grounds for people they don�t want to help. She said she keeps a few names on her desk and the others are simply left until they become discouraged and drop off by not advising of their change of address; they even forget they�re on the waiting list. She said most waiting lists are �exclusion lists�. This sounds like Category 3 of the HousingSA. It is virtually stagnant and government policy is to no longer house Category 3 people, anyway. They haven�t been told, of course. The Minister said they wouldn�t be kicked off the list but neglected to add that Category 3 is dead in the water. 24 July 2008 Tame Media Interviews Have you ever wondered why journalists ask such tame questions to David Cappo when he announces yet again that homeless numbers are dropping? I�ve asked a number of media people this question and their answers can be summed up by the following: Cappo�s minder tell the journalist that the interview must stick to certain parameters that he, David Cappo, wants to expound upon and if they stray there won�t be further interviews. For example: if Cappo says certain old men have been housed then a journalist asking if the housing has been involuntary via the Public Trustee and involved medicating the men with psychiatric drugs that produce a 20% diabetes side-effect over 18-months, well, that would be a bad question. No more interviews. Or if a journalist mentions that the survey that Cappo refers to included just three church agencies and Street-to-home on just once day, well, again, no more interviews. So when Cappo speaks we hear little more than his sales pitch that homeless numbers are dropping. Posted 22 July 2008 Homeless Survey Statistics The Department of Families and Communities has commissioned another survey of homeless people in Adelaide. According to their results the number of unsheltered people has dropped from 108 in June 2007 to 79 in May 2008. (see Table 1 of the survey.) Pretty good results for the government�s social inclusion policy, eh? The count was done on one day at Bryon Place Community Centre, WestCare and Hutt Street Centre, and by Street-to-home doing a morning walk. The results also show that �unknowns� have gone from 56 to 87. �Unknowns� are people at homeless shelters or those caught by Street-to-home living outside who refused to divulge their housing status. This rise in �unknowns� is possibly because people don�t want their details listed with church agencies increasingly suppling personal data to a government department that might grab them via psychiatric orders. Thus the decrease of 29 people listed as unsheltered over the period of the two above-mentioned surveys are matched by the rise of 31 people refusing to provide details. This throws considerable doubt on David Cappo congratulating himself on �reducing homelessness�. Another defect in the survey is that not all people living outside in the Adelaide CBD go to the three homeless joints, or are caught by Street-to-home. In fact, when attending these places people often wonder where the �real homeless� are. The reason why the �real homeless� stay away is that these joints are dangerous and swarming with predators. And the last thing one needs when living outside is having some predator shadowing you, or suffering mental anxiety from threats, etc. More strangely in the survey is Table 2 that lists the number of unsheltered people in Adelaide suburbs as 7. Even the most na�ve wouldn�t be fooled with this low figure. I�ve seen double that amount in one month period in two suburbs. We meet at various free food joints, shower centres, libraries, etc. This survey probably cost $10,000. Guess who benefited most from it? Could it be the bureaucrats paid to produce it? Is this a cynical or realistic question? The survey results are at http://www.familiesandcommunities.sa.gov.au/Default.aspx?tabid=600 Scroll down to �Counting the Homeless Adelaide � May 2008 posted 17 July 2008 Carnal Dominance 'An advocacy group says up to a 130 homeless people have been removed from Sydney during World Youth Day celebrations. Kevin Simpson from Homeless Voice says men and women who normally sleep in the city or the Domain have been moved out by authorities. "I am a little bit surprised they haven't taken more care of the actual people who Jesus came for and that's the disadvantaged, marginalised broken people," he said. Read more on http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/4792835/homeless-removed-wyd 16 July 2008 Gary's new career? Gary Rankine, the homeless scene�s fearless, popular, even loved eccentric was seen in Hindley Street guiding a motorist into a parking space. Gary waved and shouted and even placed himself between the stationary car and the car being parked so as to better guide the latter vehicle into the tight space. After this joint venture Gary walked to the driver side window to debrief the overawed motorist. 14 July 2008 "Homeless" Artists There are a couple of excellent paintings near the aquarium at the Byron Place Community Centre. Maybe Rapacious and Sue Crafter from Common Ground could go there and snag a couple of unsuspecting potential tenants. 14 July 2008 Dumbing Down Welfare Professionals Have you been to Centrelink recently, as a client? Phoning the call centre gets rather dumb responses, even worse than before. They�ll ignore your concerns then advise you visit a Centrelink office and, no, they won�t make an appointment. You must simply turn up and wait up to an hour to see someone. That employee will most likely provide inaccurate information then suggest you talk to another employee, currently absent, and, no, you can�t make an appointment; you must simply turn up the next day and hope the employee is there. This process may continue for a few weeks and you�ll get six conflicting opinions about your welfare payments. The above isn�t incompetence or laziness by Centrelink staff but the behaviour programmed into them by its former Chief Executive Officer, Sue Vardon. She called it �trimming the fat� and it is designed to discourage people from asking questions, and she couldn�t care less if it leaves clients confused and worried. Sue Vardon has since moved to Department of Families and Communities, which controls HousingSA, (formerly SA Housing Trust). Its staff have begun acting dumber than before, even trying to keep those living outside ignorant about getting on a fast moving waiting list. This makes the waiting list increasingly opaque and ripe for corruption and open to bribes. So while the South Australian government pays its front man, �the next Pope�, David Cappo, to talk up �housing the homeless� and �raising self-esteem� it is actually doing the opposite. 14 July 2008 Rough sleeper suspected of working A severely disabled man living outside says Centrelink sends letters asking if he's been working. This thrifty gentleman saves most of his welfare money in anticipation of a future of living indoors and Centrelink wonders about his bank balance. Special Note: Details of the man have been disguised to protect him from predators in the homeless scene. 6 July 2008 The return of the cook Tracey Claxton was greeted warmly after returning from a two-month absence. She is the cook at Chat'n'Chew at Port Adelaide. 6 July 2008 The nurse's creed "Be kinder than necessary. Everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." A handwritten note on the door of the nurse's room at Byron Place Community Centre 6 July 2008 Common Ground Ms Elizabeth Libby "Rapacious" Raupach has become the joint CEO with Sue Crafter of Common Ground. Does that mean they'll both get CEO salaries or will both get reduced salaries because neither is CEO? Ms Raupach previously worked for the Helpmann Academy. Is her new appointment due to Common Ground's difficulty in finding "artists and students" to live in those expensive Common Ground flats? She can tap into the data base of her previous employer and drag up some "artists". But who wins from Ms Raupach's appointment. One might ask artists in the "arts community" this question. Who gets the best rooms, the best furniture and the biggest salaries: the artists or the arts administrators? Common Ground keeps its office address secret to prevent a dozen or so homeless people from arriving each day at 9am to apply for rental housing. 6 July 2008 Psychiatry, Death and Survival "Once the instinct clicks in you'll do anything to stay safe and unharmed," said a woman in Port Adelaide who wants to remain anonymous. 3 Julye 2008 Ripped Off "I've been ripped off all my life." A woman at Byron Place 25 June 2008 Jasmin Restaurant George, the Chef from the Jasmin Restaurant was worried by one new client at the Teen Challenge meal in the park opposite the RAA. "Is he a regular?" he asked the Teen Challenge fellow. George always worries that people eating his free food aren't really from the "homeless" class. It turned out that this new guy was a former regular paying customer at the Jasmin Restaurant but since has fallen on hard times. He now eats free charity food. Maybe George subconsciously recognised him from his terrific restaurant. George might worry that his customers might stop buying his food instead patronising his free meal service. George's worst nightmare would be the Indian Cricket team lining up in the park on Thursdays. 25 June 2008 Interstate Criminals The South Australian Police want the formation of and access to a register of people using homeless services so they can track interstate criminals coming to Adelaide. They want the travelling poor to register with the police like in apartheid South Africa. Richer folk wouldn't have to register, just those using "homeless services". I asked people in the homeless scene last week if they'd spotted new arrivals of interstate crims. No one reported any sightings. I didn't see any, either, although crims are in constant movement between states and don't necessarily use "homeless" services. Jo Wickes of HomelessnessSA condemned the idea as "ridiculous" while Ian Cox, ever so political, described it as "unhelpful". The "short fuse" and "the next Pope" were conspicuous by their silence. Their actions are criminalising and mentalising the "homeless class", but they can't admit this publicly, especially "the next Pope". 25 June 2008 Just another free welfare meal Pauline, (not her real name), was crying throughout the free meal at Port Adelaide. She's about sixty, lives alone and gets around in a walking frame. She has about seven children. At last week's meal she showed us a picture of her father, recently deceased, alongside a picture of a cow and a dog. She was worried about what would happen to the animals now that her father had died. Her face was bruised due to a recent fall. She's waiting on a long list for knee surgery due to "arthuritis". During her crying she went into a seizure then recovered and began rubbing a table as if cleaning it. "She doesn't know where she is," a friend told us. Then she recovered and returned to crying. Staff gave her a lift home, afterward. Andy, (not his real name), was also there. He was in agony from an infected tooth. He couldn't eat most of his meal. He works for three-dollars an hour at the UnitingCareWesley Port Adelaide enterprise called Port Partnership. He'd been to the government dental clinic on Dale Street, Port Adelaide that day but they wouldn't let him see a dentist. The receptionist said his pain didn't appear bad enough to warrant an emergency examination. Andy has a stoical demeanour and said he didn't want to miss another day at Port Partnerships and would simply suffer further (though he didn't use the word "suffer"). His girlfriend urged him to go back and refuse to leave until a dentist looked at his infected tooth and gum. I said he should exaggerate the pain because that is the only language the receptionist understands. He said he'd go to work. It was just another free meal in Port Adelaide. 17 June 2008 A life of disasters "T" didn't want to talk about his date with two women last fortnight. He was happy in expectation then but now he says that is the past and he doesn't want to talk about it. He is currently "homeless", crashing at various peoples' houses for a night or two. He left his rented unit due to a neighbour's intimidation. He doesn't want to go into detail. I told him about the Common Ground and Social Inclusion programs to house homeless people, but the paperwork and humiliation was too much for him to deal with. We both knew I was sprouting government propaganda. He's verging on desperate. "T" had a job in Ovingham but lasted half a day. There are things he simply can't do. Things seize up in his brain. He's excitable and loud but easily intimidated by life. Like many people outside "T" has an instinct that keeps him away from drugs and excessive alcohol. His life is full of sadness interspersed with bouts of joyous expectation of some new adventure, which always contains the seeds of another disaster. He is both a tragedy and a triumph of human faith. 17 June 2008 Grand Theft Homeless continued While many in the homeless industry joined the gravy train by attending the 5th National Homeless Conference in Adelaide, others did not. It would be nice to read a list of those who didn't attend on moral grounds. 17 June 2008 Snot "He touched me down below so I kneecapped him. A male friend said he's snot him for me." A woman can collector on Grenfell Street 17 June 2008 Grand Theft Homeless Those diabolically clever bureaucrats last week diverted a huge sum of money to themselves: money that should have been for the homeless. They pulled off this clever stunt by staging the 5th National Homeless Conference in Adelaide from 21-23 May, 2008. They not only got free tickets but most of them were paid by their organisation or government department to attend. Some will even have their accommodation paid for. And guess who the two top-billed speakers were: Jay Weatherill, the Minister for Destroying the South Australian Housing Trust and Tim Costello, front man for an organisation that uses international disaster relief to plant spies in "helped" countries. You can imagine the chuckles when delegates to the homeless conference bed down at night at the Stamford, when they realise that within half a kilometre someone is sleeping outside in a dangerous situation. Below are the ticket prices for those of attending the "Homeless Conference", and some of the recommended accommodation. 21-23 May 2008, Adelaide Convention Centre Cost: $550 to $750 including meals Recommended Accommodation: Hyatt Regency at $205 a night; Stamford Plaza at $210 a night; or the Rockford at $149 for each night. 28 May 2008 "Play for Fun" That's what the Adelaide Casino writes on their toilet door posters. If you look at the "players" in the Casino very few seem to be having "fun". 28 May 2008 Surveillance? Is it reassuring? "This building is under 24 hour video surveillance." That's what is written next to the elevator leading up to the Bus Station "studio apartments" run by Common Ground. Should residents be reassured by this surveillance? Are they told how long the surveillance files are kept? Are these files sold or traded? Who actually is keeping surveillance? Will it actually protect the residents or is it a tool to monitor the movements in and out of the "apartments" of the residents? By the way, the surveillance must have missed the faulty front door that has sat half open, half shut for days. 28 May 2008 Another Description "Cubby house rooms," another person said of the Afton House redevelopment. "Sort of two rooms: a toilet/shower, kitchenette, bed and a balcony. You can bet there will be a few deaths like some drug addict saying, 'I can fly, I can fly', and jumping over." 28 May 2008 Something wrong at Byron Place Community Centre Meeting Centrelink employees at "homeless" centres is usually more effective than going to the main Centrelink offices. They offer better service at the homeless joints because they know they're dealing with tough characters. The routine at Byron Place Community Centre has been that one of the two Centrelink employees would stand outside the consulting room and put clients on the appointment list while the other employee finished writing notes on the previous customer. Sadly, things have deteriorated. Sonya, and whoever else is with her lock themselves in the room for inordinate periods then when ready for another client they simply open the door part way. That's it. There isn't even a sign to say they're from Centrelink and will receive customers. This makes it incumbent on the customer to peek into the room to ask the apparently depressed occupants for entry. This subtle power shift against the homeless client is enhanced by what seems a routine by Sonya and the other employee to dumb down the interaction so that nothing whatsoever is achieved. So what is the purpose of this apparently choreographed dumbing down of the Centrelink presence at the Byron Place Community Centre? The answer is less Centrelink face-to-face interaction with the clients, which is what most government departments over the past decade have sought to achieve. Less Byron Place people use the Centrelink outreach and soon Centrelink can say the service is therefore not required. It's all choreography. The downside of this dumbing-down creates a feeling of powerlessness and fear in the homeless person, which is compensated by withdrawing into a psychological cocoon where the brain fills the body with natural pain reducers and the person moves into a state called depression. 28 April 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 12 May 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 as if sneakily pulling a derringer from his coat and a gunshot sounded as he expelled gas from the lower section of his intestinal tract. Anton said it was a strange restaurant. 12May 2008 The Meat Factory A man aged sixty and living in his car went to the RAH for a standard heart check after complaining of chronic chest pains. He said he told the nurse he had low blood pressure because he hasn't eaten salt for twenty-eight years. The nurse sprayed something under his tongue then something went wrong. "I can't see anything. My eyes can't see," Then said he was feeling sick and when he regained consciousness nine medical staff were jumping around his bed. A doctor was yelling at the nurse while another was asking if he remembered his name and how many fingers was the doctor holding up. The RAH staff didn't want to let him leave that day but he did, anyway, because the vehicle he sleeps in was parked alongside the Torrens and wouldn't survive the night without being robbed and vandalised. He returned the next week for a follow-up check and they told him there was nothing wrong with him except a bit of gastric reflux and that he should leave. But the man says he still has serious chest pains and it isn't reflux at all because he once had that and he knows what it feels like and that his chest pains are different. 29 April 2008 Don't play with fire Lots of people warned Frank Jones to be careful with those One flew over the cuckoo nest crowd at Street-to-home. Except his enemies, of course; they didn't warn him. Frank, the banjo player, then living in his black van, was helped into yet more inappropriate accommodation: a unit in a retirement village with a shared wall. Frank told them he wanted to live in his van until an unattached unit was available with a lock-up carport. (Most of the new HousingSA units are of this type). The Street-to-home crowd said Frank didn't have to worry because the retirement village was only temporary. They weren't lying. The latest rumour flowing around the homeless scene is that they've now got him in Glenside Hospital, which was their aim in the first instance. Poor Frank trusted the government. 29 April 2008 �Real homeless� not welcome at renovated Afton House �The homeless won�t move into Afton House; they�ll stay homeless,� an older man living outside told me today. He's lived outside for many years, never collects welfare and works eight hours a week for less than half the weekly dole rate. His job yesterday was delivering materials to Afton House being renovated these previous 18-months. When finished itwill house over one-hundred "homeless" people. He says the �real homeless� don�t have any income, not even welfare so they can�t afford Afton House. �And they can�t go through the bullshit of identity checks, medical referrals, all the things that make a person homeless in the first place,� he says, adding, �Like kids running away from home.� �All those moving into Afton House are already living in units,� his voice rises. �You should be talking about this instead of [people] getting kicked off the train,� he shouts. 29 April 2008 Another Description �Cubby house rooms,� another person said of the Afton House redevelopment. �Sort of two rooms: a toilet/shower, kitchenette, bed and a balcony. You can bet there will be a few deaths like some drug addict saying, �I can fly, I can fly�, and jumping over.� 29 April 2008 Unnatural Justice "They didn't tell him why he was being banned; they didn't give him a chance to defend himself; there wasn't an independent arbiter. It's a denial of natural justice." A person, (not previously having been quoted), in the homeless scene commenting on WestCare kicking out a regular diner for one-year because of complaints from the paid cook. The above quote is from my memory of the conversation. 28 April 2008 Cecil dead Cecil, a regular patron of the Hurtle Square Soup Van died in the Royal Adelaide Hospital last week after a heart attack. A friend commented somewhat wryly that: "He ate all those health foods. Didn't help him in the end." The speaker's voice rang with fatalism and regret. Meanwhile, Tony, the can collector from Crazy Cottage, (he isn't crazy), has returned from hospital after extensive tests. He says they told him no further tests were required for five-years so it looks pretty good. He was first in the RAH then shipped to a hospital near Campbelltown. Tony now sports a plastic card allowing him to catch Taxis for half-price. He also uses the Adelaide Day Centre soup van in Hurtle Square. 28 April 2008 The Ghost Laughed The-ghost-who-walks laughed at Phil, the Celebrity Can Collector earlier this week. Phil sold a stainless-steel barrel from a salvaged dish washer to NorMetals for eighty-cents a kilo when other places pay over two-dollars. 28 April 2008 The Emperor has no clothes "The next Pope" is feted across Australia by our carnal rulers; he can't do anything wrong. While Premiers and the Prime Minister imply he is creating social miracles, history may be less kind to David Cappo. There is less sexual abuse prevalent in government and church institutions today compared to last century. But the abuse has simply changed its ugly face. Homeless people are encouraged, even required to use addictive and destructive prescription drugs as a condition for moving into government housing. Government NewSpeak labels it as "support" and "mental health" but it is abuse, nevertheless. Those "rough sleepers" not accepting "support" are denied priority access to declining government housing stocks. Public housing was previously rented to low income people for money alone. But now homeless prospective tenants must accept "support" as a precondition for housing. This means housing options have decreased for those living outside who won't accept "support". This housing policy has been imposed amidst government and media propaganda saying options for the homeless have increased. Cappo rides the wave. 28 April 2008 WestCare management incites further unrest. The one-month suspension given an older client by WestCare management has been extended to one year. The elderly man said he didn't understand why the ban had been extended except that Jane, the paid cook, wants him excluded permanently from the homeless centre. The older man has purchased the two-dollar lunch at WestCare for many years. Another source claims that Jane sought legal advice with the intention of obtaining a restraint order stopping the older man from entering the dining area of WestCare forever. Sadly, for Jane, the legal advice was she didn't have a case. My source says this is, however, just a rumour. This second source says Jane has such influence that when a WestCare employee named Arthur advised her twice, in writing, to "life her game" in the kitchen, he was effectively sacked then transferred to Port Pirie. (This claim has not been corroborated). A third source says Jane is paid $22 an hour for five-hours a day but works just one hour while the volunteers do all the work. All three sources claim that at one lunch last week the pork chops were raw. The excuse given was that an unusually large number of diners didn't allow Jane enough time to cook the chops. The third source says Jane regularly fails to wear gloves on both hands when serving food while the volunteers cover both hands. This person says, "She does hardly anything there. She's not a qualified chef. A ten-year-old could cook those meals. Schnitzel has been removed from the menu because she found it too hard to cook." Personally, I've found the meals quite good, not great, but the church atmosphere and politeness of staff is terrific. John the Baptist is an inspiring waiter. Yet, I've watched the banned man for two years and while he is intellectually challenging I've never seen him do anything reprehensible. He gave a white man a lift home for safety reasons after the latter was targeted by a white gang for mixing with black folk. He gave his own scavenged food to a black woman who arrived late at Fred's Van. His banning seems a similar case to Frank Jones and PJ getting kicked out of Hutt Street Centre. All three are clever old men in their sixties and seventies who have the knack of "rattling management". Words are dangerous weapons and homeless centre managers fear the words of old men wise in the ways of the homeless scene. 18 April 2008 The Removalist The Removalist was seen at Byron Place recently. Both he and "C", the high-powered scrap collector, have been absent from their usual haunts ever since the Bun Fight at the Magdalene Coral. 18 April 2008 Home |