Lithgow's only dedicated homelessness service says that the number of people using their services has increased by more than ten per cent this year, following nation and statewide trends.
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Deonne Kinney, the manager of Lithgow Community Projects, which supports people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, said the service had experienced a 12 per cent increase in people using its services in the 2016-17 financial year, which equates to 40 more clients than last year.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released a report on December 14 using data that showed inner regional areas have had the greatest increase in people accessing specialist homelessness services over the 2016-17 financial year compared to city, outer regional and remote locations.
There has been a six per cent increase in people accessing homelessness services in New South Wales in the 2016-2017 period.
Lithgow has not escaped the trend. Lithgow Community Projects is funded by the Department of Family and Community Services to support a minimum of 134 clients. This year, LCP almost tripled that number assisting 390 people who came to the service seeking to maintain or find secure housing.
“I think that is a trend nationally and state wide, and we’re feeling the effects of that at a local level as well,” Ms Kinney said.
“The funding isn’t increasing to meet the demand. We’re very mindful that there is a demand for our services but we have to support our clients in a way they will benefit from.”
She believed lack of housing affordability in metropolitan areas was contributing to homelessness in inner regional areas.
“The ability to access affordable housing, and the ability to access safe, appropriate accommodation is becoming increasingly difficult.”
Ms Kinney said the main reason people access LCP’s services is that they are in a ‘housing crisis’.
“It’s a generic term but it means where people have been evicted from their property, or who are couch surfing or things like that,” Ms Kinney said.
The second major reason is that the client is experiencing domestic or interpersonal violence.
AIHW figures showed that this year, Australia-wide, forty per cent of people accessing specialist homelessness services were experiencing family or domestic violence.
Christmas is a period of increased difficulty for many due to financial and emotional pressures, Ms Kinney said.
“Christmas can be an emotional trigger, for example many people feel extremely lonely or perhaps they are seeing family where there has been violence or abuse in the past.
“We make sure people have the numbers of telephone services like Lifeline and the Kids Helpline so they feel like they have have go someone to speak to if need be.”
Lithgow Community Projects’ crisis centre will remain open over the Christmas period with an on-call support worker.
People can get help over the Christmas period by calling the NSW Domestic Violence Line on 1800 656 463 or the NSW homelessness line on 1800 152 152.
