Wheels of Wellness to cease its respite service after inability to secure federal or state funding
A respite service for rough sleepers in Cairns City will close after it failed to secure funding. This is what it could mean for homelessness across the Far North.
Cairns
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A Cairns homelessness hub hasn’t secured funds to continue its respite service and expects an escalation of homelessness in the city unless the state government comes to the table.
Wheels of Wellness provides primary health care and outreach GP clinics to homeless people – which will continue running – and has operated a day respite service for the past 18 months that has subsisted off benevolent contributions.
The respite service will cease this Friday.
The organisation is otherwise funded through the North Queensland Primary Health Network, a federal government initiative, but funding was almost halved last year.
Yolonde Entsch, Wheels of Wellness CEO, said the state government hadn’t made itself available to fill the gap left by the federal government.
“We average 50 people a day who come in to use our day respite services. We’ve often got 10 to 20 people waiting for us to open at 8.30am,” Mrs Entsch said.
“Mr Healy’s office advised that the Department of Communities … allocated $14,537,873 in Homeless Funding in 2022-23 to six organisations.
“That is an increase of more than two million dollars on the previous years; however, no funding has been allocated to (us).
“To keep the hub open for 12 months equates to 3.2 per cent of this financial year’s homeless funding.”
Mrs Entsch said 1700 people accessed the service between July and December last year.
“We’ve got one gentleman with us at the moment who’s on suicide watch. We’ve got one woman right now who’s hiding from her partner – she’s a victim of domestic violence. She’s sold her car recently so she can buy nights in a motel while trying to find crisis accommodation.
“We’ve got people currently sleeping on the beaches and in the mangroves. They come to us in the mornings and can have a shower, get some dry clothes and have something to eat.
“My clients are telling us we are the only place that can come and get some wraparound support.”
Cairns MP Michael Healy said the situation wasn’t so straightforward.
“We have a number of organisations up here who are receiving millions of dollars in this highly important area and all of a sudden you’ve got a business over here that we’ve had nothing to do with … they’ve run out of money and they’re saying ‘hey, we want some money too’. It doesn't work like that,” Mr Healy said.
“The state does an analysis of a variety of non-government organisations, identifies them and then works with them.
“It’s almost impossible for us to fund every organisation that puts their hand up.
“Wheels of Wellness is a federal initiative, and it was the federal Liberal government who pulled the funding.”
Mr Healy said he had previously received a funding request from Wheels of Wellness.
“Wheels of Wellness sent me a document seeking funding and I submitted that to the Department. The Department has told me that work is being done by other organisations within our community.”
Mrs Entsch said she had lobbied Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, her husband, for more funding, as well as other relevant Federal Government ministers.
“As the federal member, I do keep him informed,” she said.
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Originally published as Wheels of Wellness to cease its respite service after inability to secure federal or state funding
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