Red Lantern’s Pauline Nguyen experiences the pain of homelessness on SBS series Filthy Rich and Homeless
She’s a much-respected entrepreneur, owner of an award-winning restaurant and sought-after speaker. And her life has just been turned upside down.
Local
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Award-winning restaurateur and entrepreneur Pauline Nguyen does not watch TV. Ever. So when producers of the SBS series Filthy Rich & Homeless approached her to appear on the 2020 season of the show she wasn’t sure what to think.
“I was very curious,” she says.
“But my hesitation was that it might be another gratuitous reality TV show … so I asked my friends and not only had they heard of it, they expressed to me how integral it was and how its message was one that our society really needs to hear and especially right now.”
And so Pauline, who is a legitimate eastern suburbs identity and one who is not opposed to a pair of staggeringly high heels and a sequin or three, agreed to be involved.
When the time came for the series to be filmed, Pauline was collected by producers of the show and taken to a studio where she was stripped of her worldly belongings, handed a second-hand outfit and a sleeping bag and then ordered back into the car.
She was then dropped at the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park.
Pauline was left with no cash, no phone and no support. And it was a confronting experience.
But the much sought-after speaker, who fled Vietnam with her family in the 70s, knew she had to take action and quickly. And so she did.
“My first thought was I need to befriend someone,” she says.
“So I headed to some netball courts where I could see some people playing. There was a girl playing and I asked if I could shoot some hoops with her. She was really sweet and we played and then I asked her how much did she think a jar of peanut butter might cost. She asked me why and I told her, ‘because I’m homeless and I need something to eat’.”
The stranger told Pauline she thought a jar of peanut butter might cost about $2.75. she called her friends over to see if anyone of them had any cash they could hand to this complete stranger.
At first it looked like nobody did. We’re close to being a cashless society these days but then one young woman found five dollars. The group of girls handed over the money and one even gave Pauline her tube of Paw Paw ointment.
It doesn’t sound like much but the generosity of a group of well-to-do eastern suburbs teens warmed Pauline’s heart.
There were more experiences of sincere kindnesses. One young woman insisted that instead of giving Pauline money she join her and her friends for dinner. Then she took her to a pharmacy and bought her essentials such as toothpaste, floss and deodorant. On another day a young man hunted through his car till he found some fruit to hand over and on yet another day an Indian national loaded her up with freshly-brewed coffee, fruit and breakfast items.
The 10-day experiment both broke Pauline’s heart and also, broadened her horizons.
“It has changed my life,” she says of the experience which was filmed in the middle of winter 2019.
“I mean, how could it not? I knew hardly anything about homelessness before the show but now I have a deeper experience of just how tough it is.”
Since the series was filmed Pauline has worked closely with the crisis accommodation group Dignity, which based in Wollongong.
Dignity works to empower people who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness and helping them to find a way forward.
“Their philosophy really resonated with me,” she says.
“I came to Australia as an immigrant as a child and I understand the philosophy of giving people a hand up – not a hand out. That is what Dignity is all about.”
Pauline had planned to host a swag of fundraising dinners for the group but COVID-19 has seen that idea fall by the wayside for now.
But Pauline intends to start ramping up her fundraising efforts in the very near future and is determined to support the group long-term.
“Homelessness in Australia is a very important issue,” she says.
“Obviously I can’t fix homelessness … But I can help other people who work in this space and that is what I hope and plan to do.”
If you’re wondering how much homelessness impacts our community our most recent Census showed 116,000 people in Australia have no place to call home.
New South Wales is at the epicentre of this crisis. The number of rough sleepers in NSW is higher than any other state in Australia, with a 35 per cent increase in the latest census. In regional NSW, there is a chronic lack of public housing and severe rental stress.
Since it first premiered in 2017, Filthy Rich & Homeless has worked to spark a national discussion on homelessness and, its producers say the issue has never been more pertinent than now. Pauline agrees.
NB: Produced by the award-winning Blackfella Films (First Contact, DNA Nation, Deep Water: The Real Story), Filthy Rich & Homeless will return for a third season and air over three successive nights – June 9, 10 and 11 – at 8:30pm on SBS.