I've spent a couple of days giving out financial assistance for storm and flood affected people in Warrawong, which is a depressed area of Wollongong, an hour or so south of where I live.
A storm came through about 9 days ago and the Wollongong area was hard hit.
The people coming for assistance were different to other groups I've seen. The majority of people seeking help live in old public housing which has not been maintained. Their faces show the marks of not just a bad weather event but lifetimes of hardship. Some of them have very obviously given up.
There was flooding which came from the huge volumes of water rising into homes but there was also a great deal of storm damage where roofs leaked, guttering overflowed into the roof or water made it's way through a poorly sealed window or wall.
At least two women told me that they had recently been homeless and were looking forward to being settled in a home they could invite children or grandchildren to. Now those hopes have to be put on hold while they wait for the housing authority to put in new flooring or repairs and for the women themselves to replace furniture, clothes and bedding.
One man who had lost his wallet sat down and while we tried to figure out a way to confirm his ID. I commented on the scar on his head. I meant the large scar on the back of his head (it came from somebody hitting him with a post) but he thought I meant the one along his hairline. Somebody drove over his head like it was a speed hump and his face had to be peeled back so his eye sockets could be reconstructed. The guy left home at 17 when his stepfather tried to kill him.
I think I have some understanding of poverty and disadvantage until I meet people like this. It's hard to see so many people who are injured, traumatised, toothless and strung out.
The system assesses people based on their level of loss but in this kind of community, they don't have much to lose so they don't qualify for a lot of help. I'm not sure how to design the system better. I don't think the answer is in changing the disaster grants, I think it's in looking after people better over the long term.
Most people receive a grant that is enough money to assist with a replacement fridge or a cheap mattress. My partner told me a total loss qualifies for a larger payment so when a homeless man came in and said all his possessions were stored under a house and got washed away I thought he qualified for the larger amount. I hesitated to approve the amount, knowing he'll probably do something self destructive with the money but I also thought it's not up to me to determine the outcome. I later found out the larger grant is not for "total loss" but for people whose home is condemned. The devil is in the detail, right?
I'll feel pretty silly about that for a long time.
If it hasn't hit your favourite news outlet, Molly the Magpie is going to be returned to his home. I think there are some hoops for his guardians to jump through first but he will get there.
I saw the news about Molly and rejoiced.
ReplyDeletePoverty and disadvantage do my head (and heart) in. And those with nothing get so little to help them up and out.
Thank you for the work you were doing. So very much. Are you ok?
EC, thanks for asking.i am OK, just a bit stunned at my own naivety, if that's how to express it.
DeleteAs a young man brought up by parents with just about adequate means I was astonished when I started work and came across real poverty. I've become inured to it over the decades of my life. As a society we have failed. The great sadness as I get older is that we seem to be getting less concerned with the real poverty in our wealthy societies and ignore the opportunities that this wealth could be used to create.
ReplyDeleteGraham, you are right of course, there's no need for it to be this way.
DeleteApparently a lot of public housing in the area was built on flood plain which would seem to be almost a policy of keeping the poor down.
Kylie large parts of affluent England (sic) are also built on flood plains. Stupidity and expediency and denial would seem to take precedence over any other reason.
DeleteAs you say, we think we have have some understanding of poverty and disadvantage until we meet people who're absolutely at rock bottom and desperately clinging on from day to day. There are more and more people in the UK who've had so many setbacks they just feel totally battered and demoralised.
ReplyDeleteNick,
DeleteKnowing about it and actually meeting these people are two different things.
Great numbers of them helped themselves to large cups of coffee and handfuls of biscuits. In most places people are reluctant to take anything like that.
Puts me in mind of …..I have no shoes - I have no feet.
ReplyDeleteI have never experienced any form of poverty, yes we’ve been ‘hard up’ but I’ve always managed to put food on the table, paid bills maybe a little later than the ‘demanded’, clothed children from op shops……but never had ‘nothing’.
I bet no of training will help you from reeling at what others in our ‘civilised’ country go through. Corny as it might sound - thank you for being there.
Cathy,
DeleteI've also been pretty hard up and it was so very hard. It bothers me that for some people theres never any relief. Hoping to have your kids visit isnt much to ask.
"The system assesses people based on their level of loss but in this kind of community, they don't have much to lose so they don't qualify for a lot of help." This is telling and not something that's ever occurred to me.
ReplyDeleteAin't it a grand life in the lucky country.
Thanks for the work you do.
Thinking about it, Andrew, I don't actually know how all the agencies work so I shouldn't say that.
DeleteWhat I'm trying to get at it that I ask questions like "was your fridge affected?"
How about furniture?
But if your clothes are in a milk crate on the floor and you don't have a fridge it's the wrong question.
I still believe Australia to be a lucky place but we could do better.
I enjoy this stuff, it gives me life so no thanks needed
People living in true poverty simply don't have a chance. Moving out of intergenerational poverty takes time and heroic effort, and the number of generations it takes depends on where in the world one lives. I just saw an article that says in Australia it takes four generations to escape. And Australia is towards the top of the chart. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-23/chart-of-the-day-oecd-generational-poverty/9997970
ReplyDeleteIt's heroic to live with poverty every day and so draining that I doubt there are any resources left for climbing out of it.
DeleteThanks for visiting, Colette
This is a very sad story and altogether too common. Yes, be proactive rather than reactive.
ReplyDeleteProactive effort takes systemic change and there are too many whpo don't want that. They are scared to give anyone else even a tiny slice of pie
DeleteBecause you had nothing, you don't deserve anything! It is so sad and the same way here.
ReplyDeleteI'm proud to say that The Salvos don't ask too many questions in disaster situations. The philosophy is to put money into a hurting community more than to assess how much people do or don't deserve help. The amounts aren't huge but widely available.
DeleteNot everyone would appreciate it being done that way but I think it's a good way to go
Though you didn't use the terms, I suspect that the people you're referring to are native Australians or aboriginals. Am I right? I admire you for going down there to help - doing your work with non-judgemental kindness.
ReplyDeleteHi Neil,
DeleteThere was a small number of first nations people, a handful of recent migrants, some ten pound poms.
A good mix
What are ten pound poms?
DeleteLinda,
DeleteThe Australian government had an assisted passage migration scheme which ran from 1945-1982. Under the scheme people could migrate from the UK for a processing fee of ten pounds. They were required to stay for two years.
That group are known colloquially as ten pound poms.