Be My Guest: Keith Hamilton tackles Sydney’s homeless scourge with hope and relationships

In the first part of a new Be My Guest series, Senior Minister and Parramatta Mission CEO Keith Hamilton talks about the importance of having hope for the future and the social media paradox of how modern technology has made us more lonely than ever.

Senior Minister and Parramatta Mission CEO Keith Hamilton says having “hope” for the future is crucial to our wellbeing.

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Three weeks. That’s all it takes for many who are forced onto the streets and hit hard times to lose their life skills.

And that’s not the only thing they lose, according to a Senior Minister of the Uniting Church who is also an academic and runs a homeless centre in western Sydney.

“One of the biggest issues for someone who is homeless or long-term unemployed is that they stop dreaming, because they can’t see what the future is,” Parramatta Mission CEO Keith Hamilton says.

Tracey Darwin was homeless in Parramatta after leaving an abusive relationship.

“That could also happen to people who are trapped in a job they don’t like or a relationship that is broken. And then hope dies.”

In the first part of a new Be My Guest series, the notion of hope and how the rise of modern technology is leading to more loneliness than ever are explored with a man who is trying to connect communities in the rapidly-growing west.

For Keith Hamilton, who has lived most of his 63 years around Parramatta, homelessness is one of greatest scourges in modern society.

Parramatta Mission CEO Keith Hamilton speaks to journalist Matt Taylor this week.

Latest figures show there’s been a 20 per cent increase in homelessness in Parramatta over the past year. At last count there were 80 people living on the streets in and around Sydney’s second CBD — and that’s those who want to be found.

Mr Hamilton says homelessness is often born out of relationship breakdowns, where substance abuse and gambling addiction can exacerbate problems.

“It’s been described that we have a loneliness epidemic in Australia,” he said.

“The paradox is that we’ve got more gadgets to be more connected than ever before, but loneliness is on the rise.

Life can pass us by and lead to loneliness if we’re stuck on our phones, Mr Hamilton says.

“We’re lonely because we want deep relationships and face-to-face relationships. But we can’t get that on social media and our gadgets. You see, people can be lonely in crowds — including online.

“One of the key drivers in life is about having connections, and this helps alleviate the problems with loneliness and the other problems in our lives.

“The more relationships we have, the stronger we are emotionally.”

An artist impression of “inSpire” development proposal at the Parramatta Mission site on Macquarie St.

He said homelessness impacts all walks of life, including high flyers.

“We get people who come into the mission who’ve had the lot — marriage, the house, a successful business, the dog — and lost everything and ended up on the streets,” he said.

“We’ve had someone come in who was in the Cabinet of the Fijian government; a person who has a Masters degree in English literature; a former bank manager; doctors who have ended up on the street with a mental illness.

“And within about three weeks of being on the street, even people like these high flyers lose their life skills.”

Rewarding: Volunteers at Parramatta Mission’s Meals Plus.

One of the chief reasons for this, he says, is that homeless people “live on a heightened alert the whole time and don’t relax”.

“You can see in their eyes this agitation and they have no routine in their lives,” says Mr Hamilton, who has Masters’ degrees in theology, communication and culture studies, and managing non-for-profits and community services (and if that’s not enough, he’s studying a PhD on ‘theology of a parish mission’).

“So places like Meals Plus (at Parramatta Mission) help create a routine in homeless people’s lives, where they can come in for breakfast or lunch, and start to alleviate some of that anxiety.”

He said “hope” was crucially important to the wellbeing of all humans.

Former homeless person Julie Sutherland, pictured last year, has found hope in life gain.

“Hope is about having a future,” said Mr Hamilton, who is driving plans for a $41 million, 12-storey multi-use hub to help at-risk homeless people at his Macquarie St centre.

“This is where having a job is important. It gives people the opportunity to start dreaming and can restore hope in life again.

“We all need a sense of place in society — and to consider switching off our phones and having more face-to-face meetings. We need to be nurturing and nourishing the soul. And relationships are a key part of this.

“And when you treat people with dignity, hope is born.”

* Is there an unsung person in western Sydney who you would like to see profiled in this series? Leave your suggestion below.