‘I was invisible, rejected, and ignored’: man calls for people to start treating Toowoomba’s homeless like ‘human beings’

Every year in the peak of winter Nat Spary spends seven days sleeping on the cold cement of Toowoomba’s main street. But for Nat this week isn’t just a taste of sleeping rough but a reminder of a more troubling time in his life.

Every year Base Services organises the Homeless for a Night fundraiser to raise money for people sleeping rough in Toowoomba.

Every year as Nat Spary lays his swag down on the corner of Ruthven and Margaret street he is taken back to the vulnerability, isolation, and loneliness he experienced from years of sleeping rough.

At 15 years old Mr Spary ran away from his unsafe home.

Without a roof over his head, family support or an education he spent his later teenage years taking shelter under a bridge in town and lived off food from a soup kitchen.

“When I was 15 I was invisible, rejected, and ignored,” he said.

Nat Spary who usually takes on the extra challenge of doing Homeless for a Week will only sleep out for a night this year.

“I was disengaged from my family, disengaged from the community, disengaged from school.

“I was a pretty broken young person.”

Mr Spary, who now runs Basement Soup Kitchen, was in and out of homelessness until he was 25.

Every year he and his wife Tiffany Spary organise Homeless for a Night fundraiser and for the last 10 years Mr Spary has gone the extra mile and done Homeless for a Week.

Every year Base Services organises the Homeless for a Night fundraiser to raise money for people sleeping rough in Toowoomba.

He said he knows what it feels like to be looked down on.

“People say there’s a homeless person or there’s a druggo,” he said.

“They’re people with names, they’re people with a story, they’re people that have feelings.

“People look the other way and that’s how they want to deal with the issue of homelessness. There’s nothing wrong with saying hello and smiling at somebody,” Mr Spary said.

“We need to start treating them as a human being that has value.”

Every year Base Services organises the Homeless for a Night fundraiser to raise money for people sleeping rough in Toowoomba.

Living on the streets, Mr Spary said he was exposed to a life of crime and drugs and being surrounded by other at-risk youths, it was hard to avoid.

“One of my biggest struggles was my addiction. I was addicted to drugs and just lost my way,” he said.

“When I was homeless and sleeping rough and didn’t have my own accommodation, drugs were a big part of taking away the pain and the emptiness and brokenness of my life.”

Mr Spary has not touched drugs in 25 years but on his sleep outs has noticed Toowoomba’s drug culture worsen and mental health deteriorate.

“I was more at risk during the sleep out the last two years than ever before,” he said.

“I just couldn’t believe how many people are just using drugs in the main street in front of you.

“It did bring back a little bit of trauma, and I do suffer still.”

Every year Base Services organises the Homeless for a Night fundraiser to raise money for people sleeping rough in Toowoomba.

After facing some personal health struggles and feeling increasingly unsafe during his week sleep-outs Mr Spary has decided this year he will only be doing Homeless for a Night.Homeless for a Night is on August 4 and donations can be made to support Base Services at https://homelessforanight.com.au/.