Nobody wants to live on the street.

Anyone who tells you that people that are under the influence, that are taking drugs, alcohol, that they would prefer to be on the street, it’s bullshit.

When you’re on the streets, you’re physically not well.

I’ve never met anyone who said they wanted to live on the streets. I just never have and I’ve been on the streets. Never in my life have I heard it.

I’ve heard people say they’ve had a good time when they’ve been on the streets. But that’s in the eye of that beholder, if you know what I mean.

But don’t get me wrong, I’ll say it to a certain extent. When I was homeless, I was unaware that I was homeless because my life wasn’t the worst in the world. Yet it wasn’t to the levels that it deserved to be therapeutically and holistically. 

So TA [Temporary Accomodation] is better than the streets, but the system itself is very neo-Malthusian. It’s like a cattle market – in, out, in, out. And it’s got an authoritarian look to it. It feels like you’re going to prison.

I mean the best thing about temporary accommodation is you actually meet people that are in your situation. And when you talk to them, you can kind of find out news, because there tends to be a lot of gatekeepers within the system.

They will talk about a service or a temporary accommodation and they’ll mention a person in there, or mention a service that they use, and that’s like a gateway. So it’s a gateway from a gatekeeper.

Temporary accommodation needs to be a person-centred system that is highly trauma-informed. They don’t have any empathy. There’s no love. There’s no care. There’s nothing. It’s just a fast, regurgitating abattoir.

What needs to be implemented to an extent is teaching the people themselves how to manage. Rather than saying, “Yeah, we’re gonna have relocation coaches here to help you do this.”

You might as well teach people how to manage themselves. Because that’s all people want. They don’t really want handouts. They just want direction.