From deputy mayor to town crier: Arron Wood's homelessness journey

Arron Wood entered the filming of Filthy Rich and Homeless last year as Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne, but when it screens next week he may just be recast as the town crier: it’s doubtful any Australian political figure since Bob Hawke has shed more tears on prime-time television than he does over the course of three hour-long episodes.

“I’m trying to put it aside for the greater good, but I’m shit-scared about being on TV crying in front of a national audience,” says Wood, one of the five “high-profile” Australians who signed up for a 10-day immersion in the world of homelessness for the third season of SBS’s reality TV show, which was filmed in pouring Sydney rain last spring.

Arron Wood at home with his Thai chicken green curry, interviewed over Facetime. Credit: Joe Armao

“I just bawled, I bawled a lot. Stuff came up, and I was emotionally and physically exhausted by the end of it. I tell myself that it’s about the issue, but there is still a bit of me that worries about what other people will think. I kept flipping back through it saying, ‘I just hope you did not cry for yourself’.”

Though he’s resigned to getting the odd text message from his mates back in his home town of Mildura accusing him of being a “blubbering mess”, Wood need not fear too much. Throughout the harrowing series, he comes across as genuinely moved by the plight of those he encounters, challenged in his preconceptions (including about such matters as whether to give money to beggars – an issue with quite a history at Melbourne Town Hall), and willing to grapple with the big issues.

In reality TV terms, it is a triumph of casting: not only is Wood good on-screen talent, he is someone with the capacity and willingness to try to do something about the issue off-screen as well.

We chat over Facetime at the height of lockdown, with lunch provided by the George on Collins, a restaurant just around the corner from Town Hall. “They’re good people and they’re doing it tough at the moment,” he says of his choice. “I just wanted to help them out a bit.”

There's enough in one of these meals to feed two people.Credit: Joe Armao

He has ordered the Thai green chicken curry – “delicious”, he says – and I have gone for a beef and potato massaman curry. Both come with rice, and I’ve ordered rotis for each of us, but really it’s overkill; each of these meals would easily feed two people, without the double hit of carbs. It’s the sort of luxury the homeless can only dream of.

Wood is no novice in the area of homelessness. In 2017, he found himself on the front line when the council, under former lord mayor Robert Doyle, tried to make “camping” in the city illegal in a thinly veiled attempt to move along the estimated 270 or so people who sleep rough in the City of Melbourne on any given night.

Receipt for lunch from George on Collins.Credit: Karl Quinn

Wood voted in support of that amendment when it was first proposed but in retrospect, he says, “it was not the right approach. It was never about rough sleeping being illegal, but it would give greater powers to police or services to say, ‘you must come and engage with these services’. But if I had my time again I wouldn’t go down that route.

“I still don’t subscribe to the view that you shouldn’t go and pressure these people,” he adds. “It’s neither respectful to the person to leave them there, nor does it show respect for themselves. A form of outreach done respectfully, even if it takes 30 engagements, is better.”

Wood – who was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday honours for his services to government, the environment and his local community – prides himself on working hard to come to terms with a subject, and that was precisely why he agreed to do the show, after some coaxing, when a producer friend approached him.

“I’ve got a bit of a dim view of reality television so my initial reaction was, ‘no, it’s not going to happen’,” he says. “But my wife and my parents said, ‘you’d be mad not to do it’. It was about having that chance, even if only for a moment, to walk in the shoes of someone who is on the streets.

“So much of what we do at the City of Melbourne is understanding the theory and the numbers. You’ve got all sorts of data at your fingertips, but it’s not until you get the chance for experiential learning do you go, ‘Wow, I’ve got a new understanding of the things people are facing’.

“You think you know the issues and understand that it would be terrible. What you don’t get is that literally within 24 hours the city takes on a different feel. It becomes confusing, scary, a place that you’re not part of. I think any chance that policymakers get to do something like that can only benefit their insight when they’re making decisions that affect people’s lives.”

Wood is no stranger to the kinds of psychological pressures that can make people vulnerable to homelessness. He was bullied throughout high school, and entered a spiral of depression in his early 30s when hit with the triple whammy of a failing business, a failed relationship and the threat of losing his home. But he had the support of a loving family and that – coupled with meditation to help calm his crushing anxiety – eventually got him through.

Wood, centre, with doctor and TV presenter Andrew Rochford and comedian Ciaran Lyons prepare to trade their comfortable existence for life on the streets.Credit: SBS

So maybe some of those tears he sheds are for himself. But having been through some tough times, he can genuinely empathise with the plight of those whose living conditions are unlikely to suddenly change for the better in 10 days’ time.

What, then, did he take back to his day job in terms of insights and resolve? In short, that the only way to beat homelessness is to build more social and affordable housing but also that the housing itself is not a cure-all.

“I do think a roof over people’s heads changes so many things,” he says. “But for so many of these individuals with such complex and entrenched issues, the idea that they will go into housing and eventually not need support is just dreamland. Some of them will need support for the rest of their lives, and that’s OK too.”

It’s expensive, but the benefits of doing it far outweigh the costs of not doing it, he says.

“From a hard-nosed economic lens, we know that for every dollar you spend on getting someone housed and supported it returns three dollars in community benefit: less hospitalisation, less domestic violence, fewer drug and alcohol issues.

“It makes economic sense. It makes humanitarian sense,” he says. “Yes it’s intensive, and yes it’s got big up-front costs, but we’ve got to look at the full life cycle of these things and put it in perspective.”

Filthy Rich and Homeless is on SBS TV, June 9to 11 at 8.30pm

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