Leigh Swansborough and Tim Verhoef have directly helped homeless people in Wagga and can’t understand why they were excluded from a key briefing. Photo: Supplied.
Wagga housing advocates have expressed bewilderment after being told they were not allowed to attend a press conference updating the community on progress made by council and government agencies in addressing the city’s homelessness crisis.
Leigh Swansborough and Tim Verhoef are part of a local action group that has been helping dozens of people sleeping rough near the Murrumbidgee River and the CBD find more permanent and stable housing.
The pair attended a Friday morning press conference hosted by Wagga Wagga City Council and independent MP Joe McGirr, which promised to update media on government progress in response to homelessness issues.
However, Ms Swansborough said a council staff member told them the event was for “media only” and that they were not permitted to participate.
“It’s a press conference about homelessness in Wagga. This affects the community and the community wasn’t welcome to attend,” she said.
“We are on the ground and part of a committee looking at solutions, I don’t understand why we can’t get informed. Why are we so threatening?”
The NSW Government apparently formed a “roundtable” to address the homeless crisis after the death of a newborn baby in a tent near Wagga Beach.
Calls for action intensified further after Ms Swansborough and Mr Verhoef assisted two homeless people drenched by sprinklers at Victory Memorial Gardens on a cold morning.
When asked why local advocates were excluded from a briefing on the issue, a council spokesperson said the event was for media only and that the government roundtable tackling the issue did not include ordinary community members.
“The media call this morning, Friday 19 June, was specifically to inform the media, and thus the public, about what has been delivered over recent weeks in terms of direct accommodation provided to rough campers in the context of the whole of government response. The media call was not a public event,” the spokesperson said.
“The government response to the issue is a coordinated response directly between the government and the individuals in need of support. Both the housing approaches and the assertive outreach services are subject to privacy protections between the agencies and the individuals approached by those agencies.
“The government roundtable steering the work which has been delivered over recent weeks and ongoing is constituted by elected members from both NSW State Parliament and local government. It also benefits from senior members of NSW Homes, assertive outreach agencies, NSW Police, NSW Health and Murrumbidgee Public Health Network representatives and First Nations representatives. General community members without a direct role in delivering services in the sector are not part of the whole of government response.”
Wagga MP Joe McGirr and mayor Dallas Tout addressed media on Friday. Photo: Supplied.
Mr Verhoef said it was unusual that residents actively helping people experiencing homelessness were not included in the process.
“It seems like the whole thing is surrounded by secrecy,” he said.
“We can’t get any information on what they’re doing or how people are being assisted.”
He said there was no other forum or mechanism for advocates to provide their expertise to government and listen to updates on what the agencies and council were doing.
Longtime housing and social advocate Vickie Burkinshaw also wants more local input.
“It’s been disappointing there hasn’t been a community seat at the table with this [roundtable],” she said.
“We want the government to speak to us. We have resources, experience and ideas.”
Dr McGirr told those fortunate enough to be allowed into the Friday conference that the NSW Government had found alternative accommodation for some people who had been sleeping rough and was working on a plan to assist about 40 others.
“We’d like to know what sort of accommodation and where,” Mr Verhoef said.
“It needs to be permanent, not temporary.”
