Amelia Mulcahy: Homelessness at record levels in Adelaide, but there are good-news stories

Homeless centres are saying it’s never been this bad in Adelaide. But amid the overwhelming bad news lies hope, writes Amelia Mulcahy.

It’s an ongoing joke among TV weather presenters that we all have our go-to locations to read the forecast from.

A couple of months ago, I’d noticed more and more cars parked permanently by the side of city roads I’d take to one of my regular spots.

So much so, I thought I’d call a few charities to see if this was something bigger.

Those conversations were eye-opening.

Jaylee Cooper from Catherine House says the women’s crisis accommodation centre is at capacity and can house only one in every five women calling for help.

It’s at the point where they’re telling women how to be homeless in Adelaide, as safely as possible.

Chris Burns from the Hutt Street Centre says they’ve gone back through the records (it opened in 1954) and they’ve never seen so many people in need of help.

Everything from hot meals to showers and phone charging – demand for those simple things is up anywhere from 50 to 100 per cent.

He says what’s most shocking is they’re seeing more people who are employed sleeping in their cars.

Channel 7 weather presenter Amelia Mulcahy Picture: Supplied

Homeless Connect (formerly Homelessness Gateway) is often the first port of call for people without a roof over their head.

Call them and they’ll connect you with services.

In the past financial year, 65 per cent of those experiencing homelessness were parents with kids.

Now it’s at this point where my hairdresser, Marcela, cuts me off.

I’m in the middle of telling her about the story (the one I’d spent weeks working on) and she says: “I’m sorry, I just don’t think I can watch that. I’m just overwhelmed with all the bad news around at the moment.”

I hear you.

Fast forward to this week and the final story did go to air on 7NEWS and it was heartbreaking.

But with ‘bad news overwhelm’ in mind, I want to share a bit more about a person I interviewed for this story who left a huge impression on me.

And perhaps she’s precisely the good news story needed today to reaffirm why we keep going, keep helping out, and lifting up others in our community.

It’s 7.30pm on a weeknight and I’m waiting on the sea wall at Glenelg South for Slavka, a woman who was once homeless and sleeping in her car on the Esplanade there.

I’m hoping Slavka will give me an insight into how she got to that point, and importantly, how she got out.

I know she was a client of Catherine House, the women’s crisis accommodation service, and they’ve recommended I catch up with her first to interview, as the women currently in their care are in survival mode, working through a lot of trauma, possibly after fleeing a violent relationship, or grappling with poor mental health.

Slavka, a woman who was once homeless and sleeping in her car on the Esplanade. Picture: 7NEWS Adelaide

An elegant woman with immaculate hair approaches me. It’s Slavka.

She has a thick accent, is nervous, and throughout our conversation it’s clear that she’s worked hard to dig herself out of a dark hole to get to this point where she can share her journey.

She tells me she spent 20 years in a domestic violence relationship.

Told daily she wasn’t good enough, ugly, that she didn’t deserve anything.

I don’t press for details.

Not long after leaving “depression came knocking” and it had a firm grip on her.

She couldn’t keep going and lost everything, with only her car left to sleep in.

So she chose to drive to the Esplanade.

She says she’s grateful this was in October so she didn’t have to deal with the cold of winter, and to cope, she would pretend she was somewhere else.

“To cheer myself up I thought: ‘Try to imagine this is like camp’,” she says.

Her eyes well up and she says: “It was helpful for a while … it was my way of coping with all of these problems, all of these emotions.”

For her, the one thing she keeps coming back to is the shame of it all.

She didn’t tell friends. She felt she couldn’t. She felt like a loser.

My impression is, she’s anything but.

The other half of her story is that not long after, a spot came up at Catherine House and she moved in.

In the first few weeks there, she barely spoke.

But gradually her rebuild began while staying there.

Intensive counselling and the offer of a scholarship to become an internationally-accredited beauty therapist followed.

Her confidence grew.

A year or so on, she passed her exams with flying colours.

Her fears of being held back due to English being her second language and being over 50 weren’t realised.

These days, she works at one of the best day spas in Adelaide. She’s settled and proud of who she’s become.

“Believe me, at this stage in my life, I am not ashamed to say I got depression, I went through domestic violence and I survived. And maybe that will be a message for other women in the same situation. Don’t give up.”

And nor should we, on them.

Amelia Mulcahy is 7NEWS Adelaide weather presenter.