Nick talks homelessness with Mia

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Sorry for the pregnant pause there. We had a little bit of. We've got a new system here, you see, at the radio station. And I ain't the most flash of tech technology for that sort of stuff. You know, I'm not. So I think really had my way. I had one of those back in the old days. Yesterday's mobile phones look like bricks. And I used to. I'll probably more happy with that. Yeah. Anyway, I digress, as I often do. I have in the studio with me this morning, Mia. Now, first of all, Mia, why are you here? And what is your situation, if you're happy to explain it? [00:00:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm. Lovely to meet you, Mick. I'm here because I'm homeless, living in my vehicle. I have been for the past 12 months. The level of frustration has risen just beyond belief because I was actually issued a Department of housing unit 2 1/2 years ago. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:02] Speaker A: And did you have to wait long for that? [00:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I waited two and a half years. That was back then. And what I've been told, like, level of homelessness has risen by 50 to 60% since then. So the waiting list now has doubled again. But the thing is, is, like, when I was issued this unit unit, I have severe complex ptsd. I was wedged in a unit complex what was full of substance abuse, aggression and violence. I then went to Department of Housing to get advice, and they said, you need to do disruptive behavior reports. I done one. The other tenants in the property were too scared to do them because of repercussions. I done one. I then started to receive death threats from other tenants. They knew it was me. I then went back to Department of Housing, and Department of Housing said, well, Mia, if we want to do anything about this, you will have to go in, stand in court and go and point out the people of who's like a drug dealer who's assaulted who who. And it's like, I might as well put a target on my head and give them the gun to shoot me. So I was literally forced out of my unit because of surrounding disruptive behavior. It wasn't me. My property manager used to come and my case for your caseworkers used to come to my unit and be like, what a pleasure. What a beautiful space you've created here, Mia. And since I started putting my face out there to advocate, I have been receiving a lot of messages. I'm in contact with two women on Memorial Drive who are in the same position. They had a unit. A crazy psycho alcoholic was moved in next to her and was stalking her. She had to leave. And yeah, another lady in Armidale with kids. She's surrounded by aggression and violence and substance abuse. All she wants to do is get on with her life and live happily ever after. So Department of Housing said, keep calling the police. The police came out and said we recommend that you install video cameras. And now she's in trouble by Department of Housing for installing video cameras even though the police said install video cameras. And the thing is, I had over 100 hours of video evidence from my unit and Department of Housing never even looked. It's as though, well, I can't say this is how it is but from my perspective it's as though you're not allowed to video anything in the complexes because they don't want people to see what they are actually providing. And the whole system needs a major reshuffle. [00:03:57] Speaker A: With what sort of. In the complex. How many units in the complex you're [00:04:04] Speaker B: in beer, 21 units. [00:04:06] Speaker A: So it's a fair. And are they set aside for single family couples? [00:04:12] Speaker B: No, there was, there was various different people in there. There was a couple of owners who majorly regretted buying in the complex and because of the problems they couldn't sell them. It was. The complex deteriorated over a very quick period of time and so there's a wide range of people. Most of them are around my age but a couple of older people who were sick of it and they were scared because of repercussions. Things were getting stolen in the complex and there was needles everywhere. And when you're in that, yeah, when you're in that environment and you've got, you're getting woken up at 2 o' clock in the morning because you can hear the lady upstairs being slammed against the wall and yelling get your beep hands from around my neck, you're gonna kill me. And then him go, well you shouldn't have tried stabbing me, you stupid bitch. Now this. Things like this were happening on ah, four or five times a week. It was just appalling. Yeah, the last, the last. The thing what drove me out of there was the final straw was my friends were starting to get really scared. They were thinking that I would probably end up being dead in that complex. The final straw was I woke up. It got to a point where I would only sleep in the middle of the lounge room. So as I had easy escape access to the front and back door. The final straw was I was woken up at about 3:30 in the morning, 4:00 and I thought I could Hear voices, but it wasn't. So I quickly called my friend who was awake in Melbourne, and I told her what was going on. And she said, mia, she goes, you need to call the police. But in the meantime, I looked out of my bedroom window and I had a little porch about 2 meters by, about a meter wide. That was all I had to have, a little couch. And there was a man there off his head, falling in and out of consciousness. But when he was coming out of consciousness, he was just yelling, I'm gonna fucking kill everyone. Sorry about the language. I got carried away there. Yeah, I'm going to kill everyone. So I called the cops. I told the cops he was at the front of the house. The cops came to the back of my house, came running through my lounge room, all across my bedding, went to the front door, opened the front door, and there was this big man there who then decided to start threatening the two police officers, that he was going to kill them. Now, I'm pretty sure that if I threaten two police officers with that, I would probably be arrested. Now, this guy had vomited all over my front door, all over my couch. My pot plants had been smashed. A few days later, I found he obviously had a needle in his pocket. There was a needle down the side of my couch I didn't sit on. I just ended up chucking everything out. And the police walked in 10 meters away from my front door and said, okay, on your way. I then said to the police, hold on a minute. He's seen you come out of my door. He knows who's called the police. And, yeah, I started to receive more threats. So I escaped and left. [00:07:26] Speaker A: It's a horrific story. [00:07:28] Speaker B: Yep. Even members of Department of Housing, I can't mention names. I don't want to get them in trouble, but they felt sorry for me. Yeah, my caseworker's hands were tied. We applied for urgent transfers. They were getting rejected. Then one lady at the Department of Housing said to me, mia, it would just be as quick for you to reapply and get a transfer because we've got nowhere to put you. Literally. Department of Housing, I feel like, put me in more danger. And it's rather frustrating because I committed a lot of money and time to my healing and therapy journey before I moved into that journey, before I moved into that apartment. And now I feel like I've taken 150 steps backwards after that experience. [00:08:17] Speaker A: It must be. It must be not only daunting. How do you. Going through what you went, Mia, how do you. How do you see or do you see a lot at the end of the tunnel? [00:08:33] Speaker B: I can. Right at this very present moment in time, I don't see a light at the end of a tunnel. I'm very fortunate, after committing to my healing journey, that I. Well, I do have very dark times with my ptsd. I have the ability to be able to kind of stay positive. And I have wheels, so I take myself to the forest a lot and surround myself with animals. But as for the light at the end of the tunnel, no, I don't see a light at the end of a tunnel yet. As I said. I think I said before, since putting my face out there, I'm now receiving messages from families who are. Who aren't even homeless yet. And I say, well, how come? Like they say, well, Mia, we've been in the same property for eight years, renting. We both work or the husband works. We got two. Two kids. [00:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:29] Speaker B: And all of a sudden, because houses are worth so much, people are selling the houses. And this. This couple in particular, they said to me, they said, we've been to over 15 rental inspections to look at new rentals, but we're going there, and there's 50 people there, and some people are offering a hundred dollars more than the advertising price. So knowing that there's families like this who are already bracing for homelessness and seeing a mass. I've lived on Memorial Drive for 12 months now. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Oh, really? Yeah. [00:10:04] Speaker B: And when I first started living there, it was me and three other vehicles. The whole street is lined now, so it's obviously getting worse. So, no, I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel unless certain people pull their fingers out and start spending, spending money on the right things. [00:10:21] Speaker A: And that's the thing, isn't it? Like, you know, we had. We've been doing probably over the last month, Mia, We've had a strong focus. I know the organization, IPO Radio in general, but on my show in particular, we've been doing a lot of interviews and a lot of information about homelessness. And I. It's one of the things that stuck with me was we had a gentleman came in, Adrian. He comes in. He's doing a lot of work for the homelessness. And he said, you know, if we have a flood in like they did in Exmouth, or if we have the bushfires, it's a national emergency. He said, I don't disagree with that. He said, but homelessness is a national emergency. But it doesn't get any. For want of a better word, any Push behind it, it gets shoved out of the way, you know, natural disasters and that. I'm not trying to, you know, what I'm trying to say is that of course, give to natural disasters, help people rebuild. I have no drama. That's, that's a given. But what about the people, like you say, who are homeless? Why isn't there a big push to say, well, hold on, you know, we've got to do something here? [00:11:50] Speaker B: Why? I don't know. I, I think I start to feel like we're out of sight, out of mind, almost. [00:11:59] Speaker A: Yes. [00:12:01] Speaker B: We don't really need new racetracks, in my opinion. I, I'll be honest, I actually think that, you know, it's a really difficult kind of thing to put into words without offending or getting myself in trouble. I, I think it's the current people who are in place, the rich are getting looked after, the middle class is slowly starting to become the lower class. And I personally think very soon we are not going to have a middle class. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:42] Speaker B: It's, you know, like people working full time who are bracing already for being homeless. [00:12:49] Speaker A: And you know that, you know that the people make decisions. And I'm probably, I've said it on here before, I, I'm not particularly one part of it or the other, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But no matter who is in power, it is, for want of a better word, it is obscene that if you have a couple who are both working, both earning okay money, if those people can't afford a roof over their head, something is not right. [00:13:24] Speaker B: It's not right. I've, I've actually done the maths and like, I'm on a disability pension. My ptsd, it does take control sometimes. But I, I've done the maths and I remember Merope Close in Rockingham, for instance. It used to be classed as. I don't like saying. [00:13:45] Speaker A: I know who you mean. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't like saying the lower class area. I believe everyone's equal. [00:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah. But I know what you mean. [00:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:52] Speaker A: It's viewed as a lower socioeconomic. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The units there were. And like now I'm looking and I'm like, okay, so say if I worked 40 hours a week on minimum wage. [00:14:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:07] Speaker B: And I earn $800 a week. [00:14:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:10] Speaker B: Right. That's working 40 hours a week. Now people need to do these minimum wage jobs. We need cleaners, we need people emptying rubbish bins. All these people are working. Yep. Now, I've been looking when, and I say, when one of these units becomes available, they're advertising them for 500, $550 a week. So I'm working full time, $800 a week minimum wage. 550 comes out of my pay straight away for rent for a one or two bedroom unit. What use it. What's a lower demographic area? I then have $100 a week for fuel to get to work. I've got a. Well now the rate of groceries has gone up as well. 100 to $150 a week for food. All of a sudden I have no money left for Reggio. Gas, electricity, a phone. What I need like and that's, that's working 40 hours a week on minimum wage. Like you still can't do it and [00:15:15] Speaker A: that I think if you hitting the nail on the head, that is what I think is totally, totally when I, and I know when I, you know, go back in time. But I do remember when I, I met my, my wife 40 odd years ago. She had, she was working as a receptionist, an optometrist which was, you know, just what do you call it, it wasn't a highly paper, it was just standard wage and she had a one bedroom unit in, in a suburb in Melbourne which she could afford to save a little bit after she paid her rent after blah blah, blah blah blah. She could still save a little bit of that money. Now you had like you said you would have no chance these days if you worked in a basic job. You, you, you just can't do it [00:16:08] Speaker B: unless you health share even. Yeah. And even house sharing like I have and my caseworkers hands are tied. I feel sorry for all the support workers as well because they know what needs to be done and it's not getting done and they want to help us. And it's like I've been there are these places like I have a, I have stuff ready to move in a house, into a house in a storage unit. But I've been offered rooms what are furnished, $300 a week. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:45] Speaker B: But then also I've got my storage unit with all my personal belongings in my paintings, my stuff ready to move into a house. There's $200. So even a room straight away out of my disability pension with my storage unit is 800 to 850 a fortnight. [00:17:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's illogical I find. I mean what you're saying. Yeah, I understand but the fact that you know all of these, you shouldn't in a country, and I've said this before now, a country like Australia is roughly a trillion dollars in Debt now we've got a trillion dollars in debt now. Now we've got all the gas you need, all the oil you need, all the food you need, everything we've got you need. We can be self sufficient and yet we are $1 trillion in debt now. I don't care what government is in power. A country with so many natural resources should not be in debt. [00:17:47] Speaker B: No we shouldn't be. And also I'm pretty sure Western Australia is the richest state in Australia now not so much about the homelessness. This goes for domestic violence, this goes for the hospital system in Australia. Like I'm hearing of people going through domestic violence where they're having to wait a month, two months, three months, four months to get appointments for help. Right now quite often this can be too late of course. I recently was over in Melbourne when I escaped my unit. It was my the only place I could go where I had a roof over my head and I rescued help rescue a friend out of a domestic violence relationship whilst there. When we were on the phone we made one phone call to an agency in Melbourne and explained that she was going through domestic violence violence within a few days. And bearing in mind we never even physically met a human being, this was all done over the phone and via emails. We had the police rock up to the house, get her out with removalist. The removalist took all her stuff out. She got put in a four star hotel for four weeks in Melbourne, a $30 Coles shopping voucher every day to get her groceries. And the dog, her dog was in there. Then they paid for flights back to Perth two days before Christmas so she could be with family. And this all happened within a matter of a few days and we never even met a human. Now after experiencing that I think, I don't know. I love Perth as a place. It's the most beautiful place to live. As a place I'm not putting a place down at all. It's provided and I love it here. But I think Perth has a lot to learn from Melbourne as well. I really after experiencing that with the domestic violence and never actually meeting a person. Oh and by the way they also gave her a credit card for $4,000 so when she got back from Perth she could restart her life. She's now back on track. [00:20:10] Speaker A: That's the thing, isn't it? And I think that's the one of the other things I learned mayor about the homelessness situation was that and I thought he said people in general and you know, don't want to spend a dollar out of money, they want to spend a dollar. But he said the irony was that in 10 years time, not taking into account inflation, in 10 years time, that amount will double. So if you do it now, you'll stop it being more expensive in the future. But they don't. There does seem to be a bit of a thing about stopping it now. [00:20:53] Speaker B: It's really. I like, yes, I moved here in 1991. I've always like. There was a period of time in between 1991 and now where Perth. The population rate was rising the most in the world. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:21:12] Speaker B: Now since 1991. I know I'm going off context from being about homelessness. What I'm seeing is since 1991. What's that? 30, 35. Yeah, 35 years ago. Sorry, I got caught out there 35 years ago. Basically all I've seen being built is Fiona Stanley Hospital. And when they built Fiona Stanley Hospital, they closed the emergency department at Fremantle. So highest population rate rising over a period of 10 years. Oh, and someone said to me the other day when I bought this up, yeah, but they built a children's hospital as well. I said, yeah, but they closed the old one, so we've still only got one of each. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:03] Speaker B: What is going on? [00:22:06] Speaker A: It's. [00:22:06] Speaker B: Oh, look, I'm sorry, I know you can't answer that for me, but it's [00:22:10] Speaker A: like, look, to me you're pointing about us, you're pointing out things to me which, you know, I think, of course, like, you know. And again, you know, it's easy. It's not so much hindsight. I thought this before, why on earth in Perth? And I've said this before, the, the culture or the belief is that you build a double brick house. Right. I think it's just ran about the only place I was, Australia, where you buy double brick. Most of them is just brick veneer. [00:22:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:42] Speaker A: But now we build double brick here because that's, you know, the thing was. Oh, well, it keeps out the heat. Yeah. But if it keeps out the heat, once the heat gets in, it takes twice as long for it to go out, which is, to me, it's relatively logical. Why on earth. I said, don't they just get these prefab homes on a small block, get the government behind. This is all land we got. Let's put up a whole lot of prefab homes and they won't cost much. And now they're starting. Oh, prefab homes might not be a bad idea. And I think that's what you're in Government for. Yeah, you know, is, you know, like, whether it be. I don't care, with this labor level, the racetrack has cost how many millions of dollars? I don't know. Why don't you buy some land somewhere and get a whole lot of prefab houses, put them up and build a local community there? [00:23:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:31] Speaker A: To me. And people say, oh, you can't do that because of this. You can't do that because. Yeah, I'm not interested in excuses. Let's get it going. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Yeah. This is something I brought up the other week as well. I think it's a great idea. It would have to be very managed, and in my personal opinion, for a. Let's call it a higher density, close to each other kind of living situation, it needs to be managed properly. People need to be screened because it could end up like a very much similar situation to what the unit complex was, what I lived in. Now, something does need to be done. I've done quite a lot of research and I'm seeing on Facebook all of these ideas coming up. I want to find a way how I can get in contact with someone because everyone's coming up with these prefab home ideas. The laws need to change before we're allowed to do it. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Yes. [00:24:34] Speaker B: Now we've got to get the laws changed. [00:24:36] Speaker A: That's right. And that's. [00:24:40] Speaker B: It's a simple. [00:24:41] Speaker A: It's. [00:24:41] Speaker B: It can be such a simple solution. [00:24:43] Speaker A: But, yeah, you got all this. Oh, you can't do that because of this. I don't think you've got to do this. I don't think it. You got to do this. And I think. Yeah, I know, but, you know, work your way around those quickly. You know, don't get so many bureaucrats involved. Oh, well, I've just read subsection three, corner that you, you know, cannot have 52 blades of grass. You can only have that sort of stuff would, you know, it's just red tape and bureaucracy, a lot of these things. And go to. Look, I'm just like yourself. Me, I'm just a simple, simple person on the street, you know. Yeah. Go to other countries where they have homelessness and they're sort of getting on top of the problem. Let's have a look and say, oh, let's go. I'm gonna pick a country. Finland. [00:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:33] Speaker A: You know, because. So what are they doing? Which is decreasing their homelessness. Can we take an idea from them? You know, rather than put all the. Oh, we can't do that because it is, you know, expand it. But I don't think politicians in general want to do that. [00:25:48] Speaker B: I actually don't think politicians want to do that. I. I got to be very careful with what I. With what I say. I actually had a politician reach out to me a few weeks ago. I won't mention names. He reached out to me, added me as a friend on Facebook. Came across very nice. Like, really nice. And I sent him my situation about. About my unit, what happened? And I was forced out of my unit. I was a good tenant. My bills were always paid. I was forced out of my unit because I was surrounded by dysfunctional behavior. And I sent it to him via Facebook and he said, can you send it to my office, please, and I will look into this for you. So I sent it to his office. He didn't look into it. I received a message from his secretary and the words were, sorry, you are struggling. Here's a list of services. You know, my reply was. And I'm. I almost swore then, because it's very freaking frustrating. My reply was, I've been homeless for 12 months. I've got about 50 lists of all the services in my car. I've contacted all the services, and all the services are full beyond capacity. [00:27:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:07] Speaker B: And even all the services are really frustrated with the situation. [00:27:11] Speaker A: That's it. And that's, you know, words are easy [00:27:16] Speaker B: for politicians, especially not long before voting time. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Oh, well, that's, you know, it's what you're seeing now. And so, Mia, let's look. What was the do Shift the conversation just a little bit before we wind it up. What was some of the more pleasant things that happened in your life? [00:27:37] Speaker B: More pleasant things would have happened in my life. Well, more pleasant things would have happened in my life. I did. After escaping that unit, I did actually have a beautiful time in Melbourne. I love Melbourne. I love the diversity. I love the arts. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Yes. [00:27:55] Speaker B: And, yeah, if the unit was okay, I wouldn't have gone to Melbourne. But experience in Melbourne was a nice experience and also some of the more positive things. And I am going to say, whilst being homeless, if that's cool, because I do have a capability of kind of keeping myself positive even when homeless, although I am very frustrated in the homeless community, we get stereotypes a lot. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Of course. [00:28:30] Speaker B: It's. [00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:31] Speaker B: I will be completely honest. I'm transgender. I have found in the homeless community is a community where I have been the least judged by anyone. I've met some of the most beautiful people in the homeless community. And I am very fortunate that I do have wheels where when it gets too much, I I kind of have to move around, otherwise I get a bit change of scenery. I go out to the forest and I met a lovely family out there who allow me out to their horse property and I go out and give the horses hugs for therapy. And I've seen some nice places, some beautiful sunsets and you know, like there, there's times where I'll wake up in the morning and I. I go around to Palm beach boat ramp and I'll sit at the boat ramp with my coffee, meditating for an hour, watching the sunrise come up over the hill. Yeah, I think. And also before I have, I. I never thought I would. I started painting as part of my healing and therapy journey, which is a bit frustrating because trying to do it in the car, it's a bit. It's a bit difficult on a big 4 foot by 6 foot canvas. Not long before I got my first commissioned art piece. So this is another reason why I'm kind of looking forward to getting into a home because there are a few other things in the pipeline. [00:30:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:05] Speaker B: What I can start doing for a couple of certain people what are going to benefit me as well. But whilst living in a car, everything goes on pause. [00:30:14] Speaker A: Well, thanks very much, Mayor, for sharing your story and give us an insight into homelessness which a lot of people don't understand because they just see it on the news and see it in a few cars, you whatever. But to actually hear somebody who's going through it and gone through it and some of the frustrations you have. Thank you very much for sharing your story. Thank you. I wish you all the best in the future, Mia. [00:30:39] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you very much.