The Gold Coast community is being urged to dig deep ahead of the city’s annual Connect2Home homelessness event.
The one-day event will be held at Heritage Bank Stadium in Carrara on Wednesday, 2 August and will provide food, clothing, and more to locals doing it tough, along with free medical, housing and care services.
This year is as important as ever for Gold Coasters to donate what they can, with the number of locals experiencing homelessness spiralling out of control.
The event is in need of several donated items including clothing, shoes, towels, blankets, sleeping bags, toiletries, disposable nappies, wet wipes and non-perishable foods.
Maria Leebeek from Gold Coast Homeless Network says they’ve had unprecedented demand for assistance from members of the Gold Coast community over the past year.
“This is not surprising, considering the current housing demand that’s going on. This is consistent with research that’s shown that the housing demand on the Gold Coast is actually higher than even Sydney or Melbourne,” Ms Leebeek says.
“We are one of the highest cities in demand for housing in the country. So our member services have found that people have been coming into our services in large numbers.”
Ms Leebeek says the main three things locals are reaching out for assistance with is bills, such as electricity and rent, food and assistance for the cost of fuel.
“What we’re finding is that many of the people that are coming into our services are people that have never sought assistance before,”
“And what they’re doing is they’re paying their rent, they’re paying their fuel so they can keep a roof over their heads, and they can have fuel to go to school or work and they’re missing out on is food.”
Rutland Smith from the Gold Coast Community Fund says the service has never experienced the demand they’re currently seeing.
“We have never seen it as bad as it currently is. There are a lot of very good people doing it very tough. It’s never been more important to get behind your fellow Gold Coasters,”
“It’s never been more important to make those donations. It’s never been more important to donate food, to donate clothes, to donate blankets, to do whatever you can to support the wonderful people who put together Homeless Connect,
“I can tell you that last week we received 36 applications in one week. That’s unheard of. We used to get about 30 applications a month.”
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate is encouraging everyone who can to get on board and donate these desperately needed items to support this vital event.
“To Gold Coasters: I know that you are very generous people. It’s this time of the year where we need you to look in your closet at some of the clothes that you haven’t worn for a year or even more. Share it and donate it,” Mayor Tate says.
“If you got some spare dollars, donate that too!”
There will also be a number of free services available for the community on the day as well, including housing assistance, legal and financial services, complimentary haircuts, health services, and pet care.
For more information, or for details on where you can donate, head to Gold Coast Homeless Connect here.
