100 turn up for free feed

John Farmer (front) and Peter Treweneck are among the many people that chase away the cold winter night with a hearty, hot meal provided free by Andy's Kitchen volunteers at the Uniting Church.

Max Fleet

IT is Wednesday night at the Bundaberg Uniting Church and about 100 people are eagerly waiting until the doors open so they can take a seat and enjoy a free meal.

Empty seats have become scarce at the Takalvan Street church as Bundaberg's homeless situation worsened, so some of the needy now dine outdoors on picnic benches.

It is only the second time in the 10 years Andy's Place has been operating that the service has catered for more than 80 people.

The only other time was one week ago.

“Demand has really shot up in the past few weeks,” Andy's Place committee secretary Bronwyn Prentice said.

“It's not just the evening meal, our lunch services are also very busy.”

The service has been growing for the past 10 years, but in the past six months as the slowing economy takes its toll on Bundaberg businesses, a spot at a table at the church has become one of the hottest seats in town.

“I've never seen it so busy,” said John Farmer, a pensioner who has been using the service since its inception.

Several of the diners are backpackers, gathering for a free meal, but an alarming amount are Bundaberg residents feeling the sting from the ailing economy.

Other services for the underprivileged have noticed a skyrocket in demand since the global recession began.

Applications for crisis accommodation in Bundaberg have doubled in the last six months amid the global economy downturn, Bundaberg Housing Service general manager Jackie Richards said this week.

Singles, families and workers turfed out in the struggling economy are among the new wave of people finding themselves homeless, she said.

“When times are good the people that we see as homeless are people that have found themselves in difficult situations like a rent increase,” Miss Richards said.

“But we are seeing more single parents with children and people who have either lost their job or had their hours cut in recent months.”

The Takalvan Street office has been busy in 2009 with 60 to 70 people applying for emergency accommodation each month.

That figure is up from around 35 six months ago, Ms Richards said.

“There has been no increase in the allocation of houses from the state government,” she said.

Statistics released yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that, even in Australia's boom period homeless numbers increased.

The Counting the Homeless report showed that on Census night 2006, there was an increase of more than 2000 homeless people in Queensland since the 2001 survey.

The amount of people without homes in Bundaberg was 443, or 74 homeless people for every 10,000 residents.

When caravan park residents were added, that number jumped to 688, or one homeless person for every 1000.

“The years between 2001 and 2006 and were some of the best economic times Australia has experienced - and it was still not enough to bring homeless numbers down,” Mission Australia's Queensland director Tony Stevenson said.

• Andy's Place provides a lunch service at 1pm Monday and Friday and a dinner service 6pm Wednesday.

• Heritage Christian Centre on Woondooma Street hosts a lunch each Tuesday from 1pm.

• Drug Arm's Street Outreach Service helps the homeless each Thursday and Friday night.

Statistics:

Newly-released statistics from the Australiangovernment show the state of Bundaberg's homeless situation and wherethey have been staying.

• Improvised dwelling: 23

• Staying with friends: 200

• Living in boarding house: 94

• Staying at crisis housing: 126

• Living in caravans: 245

• Total: 688

• Bundaberg represents 1.6% of Queensland's 26,782 homeless people.

• Inner Brisbane has 7.7% of Queensland's homeless, the highest in the state.

• Inner Brisbane's 2070 homeless people represents the highest rate in Australia - that is 246 for every 10,000 people.