Walking Home highlights local homelessness crisis

By Bree Harding

Aug 12, 2024

Around 100 people participated in the event at Victoria Park Lake on Friday, August 9. Photo by Megan Fisher

Around 100 people joined the Salvation Army’s ‘Walking Home’ event in Shepparton on Friday to raise awareness of those who don’t have a home to walk to.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

The Homelessness Week event included a walk around Victoria Park Lake and a free sausage sizzle and water to hydrate walkers on an unseasonably warm day.

Shepparton Christian College students Krystal Oelfke and Maddison Gurnick enjoy a free snag after working up an appetite walking around the lake. Photo by Megan Fisher

The Salvation Army’s Jim Gow said the event was about increasing awareness and decreasing the stigma surrounding it.

He said there were factors causing homelessness, including rising living costs, domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse, among others, but ultimately, it was a shortage of bricks and mortar.

Michelle Foley feeds the masses with a smile at the event. Photo by Megan Fisher

“You can imagine if you have an 18- or 19-year-old just out of school with no references yet, no rental history and going to open houses applying for rentals up against surgeons coming to work in Shepparton at the hospital,” Mr Gow said.

Major Scott Smallacombe addresses the crowd during the Walking Home event last Friday at Victoria Park Lake. Photo by Megan Fisher

He said many people weren’t aware the issue of homelessness was so large — Greater Shepparton ranked 23rd of 88 in Victoria for severity — so events such as Walking Home and the forum the organisation hosted earlier in the week were a great opportunity to bring it into the spotlight.

The sun shone as around 100 people discussed homelessness while walking around Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake on Friday, August 9. Photo by Megan Fisher

“Because we don’t step over homeless people like they do in metro Melbourne train stations doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist,” Mr Gow said.

“In some ways, it’s worse here. It’s bitter, colder, harder.

“Up to 436 people can be homeless in any one night.”

Community members, school students, politicians and service providers joined in discussions about tackling the growing homelessness issue in the region as they walked together. Photo by Megan Fisher

Mr Gow said he believed the answer to improving — and eventually solving — the problem required a holistic approach with a wraparound of all services that specialised in areas such as mental health, violence and substance abuse.