Imagine you’ve not slept in a proper bed for weeks. Your body is craving a shower and a meal, you’ve misplaced important documents, you have no family nearby and the friendships that you do have are fragile. You are having trouble making yourself understood and people are walking past you as if you are invisible.
You are acutely aware that those people who do notice you see you as something “other” than themselves and you feel the shame and embarrassment of being homeless.
As Suzanne, 27, describes, “People just see you as a homeless person or they see you as a thief. Homelessness usually comes with the labels of being a thief, or a junkie or this and that and that’s not always the case. Just because you are homeless, it doesn’t mean that you are all those things as well.”
Someone else on the street tells you about a drop-in centre for women. There you will be safe. You won’t be judged. You will find a free, hot lunch and a warm welcome. You can have a shower and wash your clothes. You can talk to a social worker, use the internet, you can start getting reconnected. Or you can just be.
Sacred Heart Mission Women’s House in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of St Kilda offers just this sort of respite every weekday. We offer services and programs specifically tailored for women experiencing homelessness and social exclusion. This safe and welcoming space helps more than 140 women per month. Assistance and referrals are provided for housing, counselling, drug and alcohol support, physical and mental health, parenting advice and legal support. Lunch, showers and laundry facilities are offered.
