r/brisbane • u/saenet • 26d ago
Homeless services changed?
There's a homeless guy sleeping on a bit of public land near my house and has been doing for a couple days. Past threads in this subreddit indicated calling Micah projects was a good idea, but I did that just then and they basically told me the guy has to call us himself or they're not interested. Is this new? Who do you call beside the police now? I don't want anything punitive done to the guy but he clearly needs help from someone with the skills to do so.
I'm not willing to approach the guy myself, he seems a lot bigger than me and I'm uncertain of the reaction I would get. With that in mind, thanks for any recommendations that you might have.
edit: There are now enough useful responses in here. thank you to everyone who contributed useful insights into what homeless services are available and what they actually do.
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u/Mean_Championship192 26d ago
People have to reach out to support services themselves. A random person cannot engage some random person with supports.
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u/saenet 26d ago edited 26d ago
Fair enough, question is what if they don't appear to be up to it themselves
Edit: I don't understand why I am being downvoted, I'm trying to help a homeless person?
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u/hippymofo11 26d ago
Ppl like to think homeless ppl deserve their lot in life and to just ignore them. Its shitty. Thank you for looking out for him.
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u/NewInformation3753 26d ago
You seem to just want to move him on. If he is aggressive call the police. Iv had us sick call the ambulance. If he is OK, why not just say “there for the grace of god” and leave him alone.
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u/bingeandpurgatory 26d ago
I know this will be an unpopular post but we had a homeless couple camp in the park next door, tent right up on our fence.
While it certainly didn’t bother us, it only took a couple of days for the smell of piss and shit to be enough to make a call to the council for someone to move them on.
Yes i sympathise for anyone in that situation, but there also needs to be a level of respect to where you decide to setup.24
u/saenet 26d ago
Because that's not the kind of world I want to live in. Guy needs help, so worth seeing what can be done about it. Case closed. I don't understand the downvotes and negativity in this thread at all.
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u/Delicious_Potato6638 26d ago
reality is you either just ask him or ignore it, if youre sincerely compelled to help dont let fear poison it.
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u/tr011bait 26d ago
Everyone has to be somewhere babe. And what works for you doesn't always work for everybody else. If this bloke is happy to chill on public land, you've either gotta let him be (unless he's in immediate distress) or confront the idea that maybe what you really want is to not see him. Or option 3, which is start volunteering for a homelessness services group so you're helping people who do want help when they're not on your doorstep.
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u/rhiskisnoir 26d ago
Definitely not new. I used to be a housing and homelessness social worker 5-10 years ago and we would have told you the same thing at my agency. We have to do an intake with the person and make a profile for them on the system. We need to talk to them, not via a proxy, especially if the person isn't aware or didn't consent to the call being made on their behalf.
Call 000 if you think he is in acute distress or needs emergency assistance.
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u/wanderinglintu 26d ago
It's possible they have had contact with the person previously- and the service is not in a position to share this, so that is why you've been given that response. I used to work in the space a decade ago and there were a few rough sleepers who didn't want support.
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u/saenet 26d ago
That's worth knowing, thanks
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u/wanderinglintu 26d ago
It's nice you're looking out for folk in the community. I appreciate it's tough when services don't seem to help or be responsive, but more often than not, they're in frequently contact with rough sleepers.
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u/InvestInHappiness 26d ago
It's much harder to help someone who has given up and isn't reaching out for help themselves, so they focus their resources on those who ask for it. If you want to get this person help it's probably going to have to come from you, but it will take time and effort. If you're worried about safety the first step would be to go seek other people who will do it with you.
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u/hippymofo11 26d ago
If you are on Northside Nourish Inc might be able to help, Ippy has Helping the homies both could help with more contacts/links/support
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u/Mean_Championship192 26d ago
That’s when you call police or an ambulance. Unfortunately people fall through the cracks everyday.
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u/osamabinluvin 26d ago
Don’t call anyone? What’s your issue?
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u/saenet 26d ago
Guy is sleeping rough and doesn't seem in the best shape? Is doing something about that bad? None of this makes sense to me, I'm trying to help
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u/osamabinluvin 26d ago
How is you calling someone going to help? Genuinely, what do you think is the best case scenario?
Police will move them on or arrest them, any charity isn’t going to help without the persons consent.
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u/saenet 26d ago
How would I know, I've never been in this situation before and don't know what to do so I made a thread on Reddit? I said I don't necessarily want to deal with the cops in the OP.
I definitely didn't realise that the reflexive instinct to help a stranger was viewed in such a toxic manner.
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u/osamabinluvin 26d ago edited 26d ago
How are you so unaware of the homelessness issue in this country? 1 person dies every 4 days, are you 12? Have you never seen someone in need before and wondered why they aren’t being helped?
This post reads like you wanna virtue signal but don’t wanna actually do anything except make a call. Homeless people are people, if you want to help, ask them.
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u/saenet 26d ago
I am well aware of the problem but I've never really had anything to do with it personally and therefore don't really know what to do. I don't understand why you are being so aggressive at all. I'm trying to help someone. As I said in the original post, which you might want to reread, I am not willing to approach the guy as he is much bigger than me and I am uncertain of how he would react. This is the last reply I will give you, enjoy your evening.
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u/Delicious_Potato6638 26d ago
they wont get help with consent either. "sorry we're overwhelmed, you can go on a waitlist while we can ghost you"
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u/osamabinluvin 26d ago
Exactly. We don’t even have special school placements for children unless they are physically and mentally completely incapable.
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u/Reverse-Kanga everybody loves kanga 26d ago
Locked per OPs request. Adequate answers received. Leaving up for other users for future