I’ve never seen more rough sleepers on Sydney streets. It’s shameless

3 months ago 12

I’ve seen a lot over the 14 years I’ve worked caring for people experiencing homelessness. I don’t shock easily. But since Martin Place’s tent city in 2016, I have never seen more rough sleepers in inner Sydney as there are right now.

St Vincent’s and Mission Australia ran a combined health and welfare check in Wentworth Park for people living under the light rail bridge. Nurse Emma Barnett, right, checks up on a homeless patient who does not want to be named. With them is Mission Australia’s Amira Karam.

Take Central Station. Sydney’s chief train station has long been a beacon for rough sleepers because of its relative safety and the availability of nearby homelessness services. It’s also a gateway for vulnerable people travelling to Sydney from elsewhere in NSW or interstate. Traditionally, both rough sleepers and newly homeless people have bedded down in its external doorways and alcoves. But now, such is their number, rough sleepers are increasingly seeking shelter on train platforms and throughout the main concourse.

As someone who regularly patrols Central Station offering health care to rough sleepers, I have never seen so many using it for shelter. The other striking development: the number of women among them. It’s rare to see women sleeping rough, for obvious reasons. They are more vulnerable. More exposed. But with local shelters for women and children full, there’s nowhere else for them to go but the streets. Or back to their violent partners.

‘Which of these two people in urgent need – both with health issues, both homeless – do we accommodate in our one available bed and who do we turn away?’

There have been enough opinion pieces written on the housing crisis without me adding to it. We all know that what we’re seeing is a direct result of there not being enough affordable housing, particularly social housing, for the people who need it. We’ve heard about the housing crisis so many times we’ve become numb to it. Increasing housing stock will take years. The people I see sleeping on our streets don’t have years.

Emma Barnett checks up on homeless patient Gilly and his two dogs.

Homelessness is a death sentence. That’s not hand-wringing hyperbole. People who’ve experienced homelessness are four times as likely to experience premature death compared with the general population. Through our homeless health outreach, we regularly encounter people living on the streets who are also receiving treatment for a serious illness such as cancer. Can you comprehend how impossible it is to seek medical treatment for a serious illness while homeless? Or undergo chemotherapy while sleeping rough?

Nurse Emma Barnett with another homeless patient, Gilly, and his companions.

There are things we can do now to make a difference in people’s lives. To begin with, the authorities can stop moving on rough sleepers from Central Station, as we’ve seen take place recently. If they’re not a danger to anyone or themselves – and if there’s no emergency accommodation available – we should not be moving people on from the relative safety of Central.

Taking away people’s belongings and moving them on – away from dry shelter during a cold, wet Sydney winter – is heartless and cruel. Sending people out into the harsh elements only means they will become sick and even more vulnerable.

And I know times are tight but in the absence of more housing we must find more resources for crisis accommodation. Homelessness Australia’s analysis of Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing data shows an additional 72,000 people were turned away from crisis accommodation in 2023-24 – and three in four were women or children.

Homelessness has increased, but the number of crisis beds has not. Nor has funding. Every day at St Vincent’s Hospital’s homeless health accommodation service, Tierney House, our team members are faced with a terrible choice: which of these two people in urgent need – both with health issues, both homeless – do we accommodate in our one available bed and who do we turn away? It’s a crushing position to be in.

With appropriate funding, and working in partnership with homelessness agencies and community service organisations, we can find ways to generate more crisis accommodation quickly. It’s not a long-term solution but it’s better than accepting the unacceptable, which is letting things remain as they are.

During the COVID pandemic, we saw an incredible co-ordinated response from government, policymakers and health and community organisations to create crisis accommodation in empty hotels. We proved that, together, we could move swiftly in an emergency and take the action that was needed. Sydney’s current homeless crisis is an emergency that is crying out for our collective response.

Erin Longbottom is the nurse unit manager for St Vincent’s Homeless Health Unit, based in Sydney.