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Speaker 1: As I mentioned a short time ago, about this time

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Speaker 1: last Wednesday, we were speaking to the Northern Territory Police

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Speaker 1: and speaking a little bit more about some of the

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Speaker 1: public drunkenness that we've seen around the place, people sleeping

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Speaker 1: rough around Darwin at the.

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Speaker 2: Moment, and we know that well.

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Speaker 1: Mission Australia provides a number of different support services in

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Speaker 1: this space and joining us on the line to let

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Speaker 1: us know how things have been for them of late.

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Speaker 1: It is the regional leader of Mission Australia here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Dr Paul Royce. Good morning to you, Paul.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 2: How are you? Yeah, really well, thanks so much for

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Speaker 2: your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Paul. Firstly, for those out there listening who maybe aren't

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Speaker 1: aware of exactly what Mission Australia does, you do quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of work, don't you, with people who are

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Speaker 1: sleeping rough and and don't have anywhere to stay and

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Speaker 1: also that potentially have I suppose issues with when it

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Speaker 1: comes to alcohol. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So, Mission Australia provides a number of services across the

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory in Katherine Darwin and our brings A large

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Speaker 3: focus of our work is on supporting people who are

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Speaker 3: experiencing homelessness, both people who have alcohol and other drug issues,

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Speaker 3: but also people suppose it's the hidden or the hidden

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Speaker 3: population that you don't necessarily see all the time as well.

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Speaker 3: So we can provide levels of support across the range

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Speaker 3: for our population.

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Speaker 1: And Paul, we spoke to the Territory Police last week.

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Speaker 1: They had said that we've got a really large number

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Speaker 1: of people in Darwin at the moment from communities, which

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Speaker 1: is probably why a lot of people have sort of

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Speaker 1: seen more people sleeping raph around Darwin and also more

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Speaker 1: of that drinking public drunkenness. How are things going from

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Speaker 1: your perspective? Have those services been more required than ever?

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Speaker 3: Yes. So one of the services that we have is

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Speaker 3: there to bring up shelter and that has the forty

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Speaker 3: bed capacity. So what we're finding is that normally that

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Speaker 3: facility will be full by two o'clock in the air

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Speaker 3: in the evening, and now we're seeing that that facility

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Speaker 3: full by that eight o'clock in the evening. So we've

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Speaker 3: had to put into restrictions as to when we can

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Speaker 3: actually take people into that facility that COVID related but

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Speaker 3: also to allow our staff to do a full deep

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Speaker 3: claim that facility, So we're taking people now from two

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Speaker 3: o'clock in the afternoon and we're finding that that's filling

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Speaker 3: up a lot quicker than me we we had in

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Speaker 3: the past. But we also work across a number of

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Speaker 3: other services. So our work with Yearly Lean Housing Oboriginal

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Speaker 3: Corporation at Baton Road that provides short day accommodation for

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Speaker 3: people as well, and not just for rough sleepers, but

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Speaker 3: also to people who are coming in from community. We

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Speaker 3: need somewhere to sleep for the night so we're safe

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Speaker 3: and also get that support that required unless they are

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Speaker 3: experiencing issues with homelessness as well.

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Speaker 2: So it sounds like you guys are at capacity every.

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Speaker 3: Day, certainly without so bring up shelter. We are at

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Speaker 3: capacity and also some we had to have some limitations

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Speaker 3: with COVID as well because some of our staff have

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Speaker 3: been impacted by COVID and when our staff numbers go down,

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Speaker 3: we can't take our full complement of people coming through.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, but we are We work very hard in

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Speaker 3: our in the sector, as do a lot of organizations.

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of organizations that are in the homelessness

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Speaker 3: and housing services and they're all pretty much at capacity

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Speaker 3: at the moment, and certainly the demand for housing services

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Speaker 3: doesn't go away. That's facial.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so from your perspective, why is that, you know,

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Speaker 1: why are we at capacity at the moment?

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Speaker 3: It's interesting because I suppose we talk about homelessness when

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Speaker 3: there is greater levels of visibility, but actually homelessness never

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Speaker 3: goes away. I mean, if the numbers the street present people,

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Speaker 3: if those numbers go down, reassume that there's no issue

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Speaker 3: with homelessness. But we still see significant numbers of people,

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Speaker 3: for young people, for people leading violent relationships, there's not

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Speaker 3: that much the options for them. So we know that

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Speaker 3: some of the services that support women who are experiencing

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Speaker 3: family violence are at capacity all the time. So, yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's not just about the fact that we can see

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Speaker 3: more people. We do have a homelessness issue that we

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Speaker 3: are experiencing all the time. And there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: people who are sleeping in cars, who are CouchSurfing, who

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Speaker 3: are staying with family, and then we have to we

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Speaker 3: have to recognize that that's part of the homelessness issue

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 1: And Paul, is that exasperated at the moment because of COVID.

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Speaker 3: We recognize that it's harder for people to go back

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Speaker 3: to community. We know that the periods of isolation caused

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Speaker 3: significant impacts on families, people who were in dar and

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Speaker 3: at the time of isolation and lockdown. But yeah, we

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Speaker 3: recognize that it's a difficult time for everybody. And I

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Speaker 3: suppose this is just something else, another issue that impacts

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Speaker 3: on people who are experiencing homelessness or issues that they're

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Speaker 3: with homelessness.

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Speaker 1: Yes, there's no doubt that you know that we obviously

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Speaker 1: need need more more accommodation when it comes to, you know,

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Speaker 1: to homelessness, there is no doubt about that. What about

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Speaker 1: when it comes to you know, the so bring up

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Speaker 1: shelter and there and the need for people to have

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Speaker 1: somewhere to go.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I must recognize that the work that we do,

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Speaker 3: not just Mission Australia, but a range of other services

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Speaker 3: do in supporting people who are rough sleeping. Larichie Nation

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Speaker 3: do a magnificent job with their with their night patrols,

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Speaker 3: the police and to Police do a fantastic job as

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Speaker 3: well and bringing people into the sobering up shelter so

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Speaker 3: they've got somewhere safe and supported to sleep so that

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Speaker 3: in the morning they can make up and and have

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Speaker 3: a cup of tea, have a feed and and go

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Speaker 3: on with their with their day. So we certainly don't

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Speaker 3: we don't discriminate, We don't. We don't see anyone. We

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Speaker 3: just see people for for the value that they are

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Speaker 3: and that everyone needs that level of support and deserve

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Speaker 3: somewhere to sleep at nighttime and to feel safe.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh absolutely, And so then when it you know,

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Speaker 1: when you do talk about the number of beds forty

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Speaker 1: at the Sobering Up Shelter, is that.

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Speaker 2: Enough for us?

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Speaker 1: In the territories, is Mission Australia's facility the only one

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Speaker 1: where people can go to sober up.

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Speaker 3: Our facility is quite unique in that it's next to

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Speaker 3: a detox service which is run by Intehealth. There's our service,

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Speaker 3: and there's also next to that is our We also

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Speaker 3: have a residential rehab treatment service. So it's really unique,

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Speaker 3: not just in the Northern Territory but in Australia. Where

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Speaker 3: you've got a sobing up shelter, we can refer people

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Speaker 3: to the detox services. People want to consider giving up

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Speaker 3: or address issues of their alcohol and other drug use

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Speaker 3: and they can detox and then they can go into

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Speaker 3: a residential rehab service and that's all on the one side,

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Speaker 3: and that is unique. Yeah, as I said, we have

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Speaker 3: forty beds, which is which is fantastic and does support

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Speaker 3: that that services is usually fall on a regular basis,

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Speaker 3: on a nightly basis.

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Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, right, I suppose what I'm getting what I'm

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Speaker 1: getting at is is do we need more whether they're

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Speaker 1: with Mission Australia or you know whoever, else, do we

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Speaker 1: do we need more? You know, more of those sobering

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Speaker 1: up beds?

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Speaker 3: I think, well, people always find a way I made

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Speaker 3: to sleep. I know that if we had more beds,

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Speaker 3: we would be we would certainly fill them, that's for sure.

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Speaker 3: And I suppose that's a decision for the anti government.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, but certainly we know that if we had

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Speaker 3: greater capacity, we would certainly have more people killing those

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Speaker 3: beds for sure.

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Speaker 2: It sounds like it's a really busy time for you

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Speaker 2: guys at the moment.

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Speaker 3: Paul, always always busy, and our starts are amazing, Like

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Speaker 3: I can't hip my hat even more towards them because

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Speaker 3: they do it a great job day in day out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, thank you so very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate you're having a chat with us and

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Speaker 1: no doubt we'll talk to you again in the near future.

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Speaker 3: No worries, Patty, thank you,