Thousands of people in Northern Australia are facing a distressing few months living on the streets during the tropical wet season. Darwin's crisis centres are overflowing due to rising house prices. But one organisation is planning to build more shelters and take 500 people off the streets.
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00:00 Drenched bedding and bush camps beaten down by the rain.
00:07 These are the dire scenes of homelessness in Darwin as the wet season sets in.
00:12 You wake up and you're just soaking wet and then you walk around and it takes you until about 10 o'clock to get dry.
00:18 Trevor Jenkins is one of thousands in a distressing predicament.
00:23 The need to find hundreds of dollars a month for shelter or live on the streets during the monsoonal months.
00:29 You've got to find dry clothes somewhere so yeah it's really really, it's depressing really because it just wears on you, it's sloshy.
00:39 Ozenam House has been a refuge for years. A place for breakfast, a shower and a safe space to sleep.
00:47 But it closes after lunch, leaving many with nowhere else to go.
00:52 With this facility now bursting at the seams, there's plans to expand to a new location.
00:58 We're hoping to get 500 people off the streets and into this facility.
01:02 The concept of this new centre is still evolving.
01:05 So far it includes pods of elevated shelters with fire pits for cooking, showers, 24/7 security and access to medical clinics.
01:15 We look at how we provide education for the children because there are children who are homeless right now.
01:20 Homelessness rates in the NT are by far the worst in Australia.
01:24 And crisis accommodation centres are overflowing across the Top End.
01:28 It's hoped this new facility could be up and running within the next three years.
01:32 But St Vincent still needs to find a location and secure enough funding with no commitments so far from the government.
01:40 We will continue working with them to find a suitable outcome because we would love to see the ability to house every single Territorian.
01:47 For now, as the downpours continue, there's little respite from the damp reality of having no place to call home.
01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]