Australian model Ellie Gonsalves says living homeless for 10 days was a hell hole
Australian model Ellie Gonsalves says she “wasn’t proud to be Australian” after experiencing the plight of rough sleepers, and homelessness.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Actor and model Ellie Gonsalves thinks she got the toughest tasks on the harrowing reality show Filthy Rich And Homelessbecause TV audiences enjoy watching influencers suffer.
“There was a point when I thought, ‘Am I the only one suffering here?’” Gonsalves said.
“I think with the influence I have on social media, they threw it on me, and knew a lot of people would tune in to watch me sleep in a boarding house for three nights.”
Gonsalves, and four other high profile Aussies, including Melbourne’s deputy mayor Arron Wood, lived homeless for 10 days on the show.
Gonsalves, who has 1.3 million Instagram followers, slept in a park, crisis accommodation and a boarding house occupied by nine men.
“It was a hell hole,” Gonsalves said. “ A lot of the men living in the boarding house, I was told, had come out of prison, or had mental issues, or drug, alcohol and sex addictions.
“I felt so unsafe. I was bitten by cockroaches in my sleep, there was human excrement on the walls, and a lot of the men were constantly drunk, fighting outside my room until 5am.”
But Gonsalves said boarding houses were often a “terrifying reality for a lot of women who battle domestic and sexual violence, and need to escape.”
On the show, Gonsalves said she “wasn’t proud to be Australian” after experiencing the plight of rough sleepers, and homelessness.
“It’s un-Australian to turn our backs on people who are struggling, and all the while, not giving them the resources to turn their lives around.”
Filthy Rich And Homeless screens on SBS-TV tonight, tomorrow and Thursday.