Hostel reaches crisis point

A South Hedland hostel poised to shut its doors in less that six weeks is desperately seeking accommodation for its 15 homeless residents, including youth with mental and physical disabilities and elderly patients on dialysis.

Bloodwood Tree Association’s short-term crisis accommodation facility Bunara Maya has been battling to stay open since last March, facing closure four times since missing out on Federal Government funding under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.

For the past 18 months, Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion has provided the hostel transitional funding, which is not expected to be extended past June 30.

With the funding deadline looming, Bunara Maya co-ordinator Niki White said the hostel’s residents were preparing for the worst as she tried to find them alternative accommodation.

“I’ve got a baby who’s seven months old ... kids ranging in age from seven-17 years old, one of them has got cerebral palsy, and then there’s people ... with severe mental illness, as well as clients ... looking for work and Government housing,” she said

“(And) I have new tenants coming to us looking for shelter every couple of days.

“Our tenants are feeling quite desperate at the moment.”

Ms White said despite spending the past two years approaching community groups and State and Federal Government, Bloodwood had been unable to lock in long-term funding commitments.

She said discussions were ongoing.

A spokeswoman for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said they were working closely with Bloodwood to support clients to move to other local facilities.

The spokeswoman added State and Territory governments were primarily responsible for homelessness services.

However, Ms White said the plight of her tenants was particularly desperate because the Homeless Advisory Service had advised her there was no suitable accommodation anywhere in the Pilbara.

“How are they going to help if there’s no housing?” she said.

“Bunara Maya is more than a roof over these people’s heads — we provide a level of advocacy support not offered by any other organisations in town.

“I’m so scared as to what’s going to happen to these guys ... they will end up returning to communities or they go back into overcrowded homes.”

Ms White said State and Federal Governments were failing to provide long-term solutions to address the cycle of homelessness in Hedland.

“We are looking in other areas such as mental health for funding… for homelessness, health and mental health are two of the biggest issues,” she said.

“We would love to run a home-makers’ program for our clients who do finally get accommodation ... but we need to have the hostel up and running in order to do that.”