Residents of Sydney’s tent city share their stories of how they ended up living on the streets
A FORMER chef, a printer, a tradie, a married father with two kids — these are the stories behind the faces of Martin Place’s tent city and how they ended up on the streets.
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- Martin Place tent city: Leaders bicker as residents mark time
- Minister Pru Goward says it’s a mockery
A FORMER chef, a printer, a tradie, a married father with two kids — these are the stories behind the faces of Martin Place’s tent city and how they ended up on the streets.
TROY DRYSDALE, 18
Sleeping rough on Martin Place is easier than trying to go through social housing for Troy, who says the system is “complicated”.
The teenager told the Daily Telegraph he met his wife on the streets, and she is now two months’ pregnant with his baby.
He said living at the homeless camp had given him the chance to find work after “using up” his 28-day allocation of government emergency housing.
“(Social) housing — it is too complicated,” he said. “That’s why I have been trying my hardest to look for a job.”
He says since living in the camp, he has had two job offers — one in construction and another in painting — and is planning to eventually leave the homeless camp.
“You actually get a lot of opportunities here to better your life, but the government doesn’t see that ... all the government sees, there is the biggest bank, and outside is a bunch of tents.”
JOHN NOON, 56
John has been homeless since he and his wife broke up two years ago. He had too much debt and couldn’t find anywhere to live and didn’t want to ask anyone. He had been living around Woolloomooloo and heard about the camp so came to join them on Tuesday. He has since picked up two new tentmates in the past two days.
“Sydney people are good, these are all donations,” he says.
“If they kick us out we’ll just move elsewhere and then come back — I hope so, these are good people.”
JASON TUCKER, 40
Jason grew up in Manly, then his dad died when he was 11, so he and his mum moved to the South Coast. When he came back he moved to Penrith where he worked as a fencer.
He had a bad car accident in the early 1990s, became addicted to painkillers and heroin and has been homeless and in and out of prison ever since.
He’s a father of three, to two different mothers, but has no contact with any of them.
Tucker had been staying with a friend in a one-bedder South Coogee public housing flat until a week ago but he got kicked out and his friend took an AVO out on him.
“It’s good here, we have our own community and everyone is happy — there are a few spinners, a few meth heads, but you get that.”
“I just want somewhere to live before I kill myself; I am so over it,” he adds.
BRETT KEARINES, 37
Originally from Campbelltown, Kearines has been in and out of state care since he was nine.
He has been homeless his whole life after leaving state care for the last time as a 15-year-old.
All that time, he’s been a heroin addict who has been using since he was 10.
He and his partner Sarah Sky-Smith moved in three weeks ago after hearing about it when they were living around the Cross.
“We know people here. I would love a house for me and (my partner) but that ain’t gonna happen. They want to kick us out, but we will be back. The government want us gone but they should come down and talk to us about what it’s like,” he says.
NIGEL BLACKMORE, deputy mayor of tent town
Nigel was in the original settlement when they were kicked out and came back soon afterwards — about six months ago.
He has been homeless since he was divorced two years ago and moved back to Australia from Hong Kong, where he’d been living with his wife and family.
The former Kings School student won’t get drawn on what he’ll do if the group get kicked out of Martin Place.
“The vibe here at the moment is quite uncertain. People are getting concerned and upset about what they’re hearing, and we are only hearing it from the media. They should come down and talk to us,” he says.
RUSS ION, 55
The Canadian former chef came to Australia with his Aussie wife and two young children in 1996. However, he suffers from bipolar disorder and developed a serious gambling habit about 2001.
He began to gamble heavily, so eventually separated from his wife and ended up living in boarding houses and then the streets.
He’s stopped gambling now but prefers to live on the streets in the open air and doesn’t like the idea of living in state housing.
“I go crazy sometimes but everyone around here knows me now and they know I’m harmless,” he says.
He has been at every Martin Place occupancy since the Occupy Sydney sit-in in 2011.
“This is my fifth year in Martin Place,” he says.
ANDREW BARR, 42
Andrew has lived at tent city for two months. He has been on the streets for about three years after being made redundant from his part-time job as a Fairfax printer.
When he was first made part-time, he was getting by with his partner and two kids. But then he got into ice, and ended up homeless and lost contact with his partner and kids.
“It’s my own fault. I was hanging around the wrong people and doing drugs and so I hit rock bottom and now I’m on the way up. I told their (the kids’) mother I wanted to get back on the straight and narrow before I tried to get back to having family relationships.”
He’s now clean and has been so for six months.
TAM NGUYEN, 38
After his brother died in 2002, Tam’s parent’s never quite got over it, so he worked to support them and they lived together in Fairfield.
Tam had an accident at home and ended up with a severe head injury about two years ago.
“It changed me and I began to feel suicidal at home. Then I came in to the city and saw this and so I came.”
That was two months ago and Tam hasn’t left since.
CHRIS KOONG, 21
Chris used to live with his parents in Balmain but constant arguments got him down, so he left in March this year and came to Martin Place soon after that.
“There’s food, it’s pretty chilled, it’s quite nice and the people here are really friendly. (If they gave me a house) it wouldn’t make much difference because I would just come back here.”
BLAKE METCALFE, 40
Blake was released from prison in June after serving 20 months’ jail for drink-driving offences.
“My original story, I had a house and everything, and I sold it five years ago, and I just went berserk,” he says.
Originally from Penrith, he spent all his money and ended up in jail for drink-driving offences.
He discovered the homeless camp after being released from prison.
“I had nowhere to go. I walked past here and I ran into a friend, and stayed here one night, and was put up in temporary accommodation, and I was there for two-and-a-half weeks, and then I got put in at Maroubra.”
He has since taken up housing at Maroubra for $60 a week and continues to return to help in the camp’s kitchen.
STEVE LITTLE, 40
Steve got out of Junee jail just over a week ago after serving time for breaking into a pharmacy.
He has a strong message for Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward.
“Come down and spend a few nights on the street, and then tell us we’re protesting.
“They’ve got a bit of a fight tomorrow to move them on. They’ll come down here with the police, with a move-on order … it is the little guy and the big guy,” he says.
BOJAN RIZMAL
Bojan was born in Italy and was adopted by Australian parents.
He said getting his Italian birth certificate, as required by Housing NSW, was proving a complicated process.
He and his partner Jess moved to Sydney from Brisbane six months ago, because “of some issues up there”.
They lived a nomadic existence wandering the city before settling down at the tent city.
Before then he had lived with an Aboriginal community in the desert near Broome.
MELISSA HOW, 42
Melissa has slept in a cosy one-man tent at Martin Place for the past five weeks.
She is aware she suffers from acute schizophrenia but doesn’t want to take medication.
“I am not protesting,” she says.
REWI WAETFORD
“My job fell through. This place is a place of safety now. People get fed, clothed and accommodated. It’s something we do for free,” says Rewi.
“I’m one of the organisers and helpers for the kitchen. I’ve been living here for about three-and-a-half months, and it’s been a big learning curve for me. I used to look down on homeless people but now I know a lot of the people here are disabled and lost their jobs and aren’t in the workforce anymore and housing is just not affordable.”
SEFTON DANIEL, 66
“Community services. I spent the last 10-20 years of my life working with the down-privileged, poor and the undesirables,” says Sefton.
“I’m a warrior for Jesus Christ. I lost my wife, and I questioned my whole existence and thought to myself, this is it for me in the sense that she was my life and everything.
“I came to the conclusion that the last years of my life I want to help people. Now I’m here in the camp being part of a community, been here for three weeks.
“Sydney has always been my home, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen homeless people working together united.”
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