Plight of the homeless

Braving the winter months with nothing more than a jacket, sleeping bag and a few blankets, homeless man Peter Horton says he feels let down with what he claims are inadequate services for people without a roof over their head.

Mr Horton does what he can to keep him and his dog, Bella, warm at night, but he is often exposed to some of the harshest conditions.

He has been trying to secure government housing since 2005 and said he did what he could to stay warm and has resorted to the City’s recreation centre to clean himself.

“$1.55 gets you a shower and a shave, I’m not picky,” he said.

Mr Horton’s circumstances also mean he cannot see his two children as often as he would like. “I’d love to have my son here with me, but he has to go to school and have some kind of stability that I can’t provide just yet,” he said.

Department of Community Services statistics reveal Mr Horton is not alone in making ends meet.

Last year, the department found Kwinana had the highest rate of unemployment for any local government area and 54 per cent of the City’s population received an income less than $21,000 a year.

Salvation Army spokesman Warren Palmer said Mr Horton’s situation was a sad, but not an isolated, case. “There are minimal options for men with children in Kwinana, however, this is not a unique issue to this area,” he said.

Mr Horton said he had to find somewhere new to sleep every night because police and rangers patrolled the streets and often issued him with move-on notices.

A Department of Child Protection spokesman said it funded nine specialist homelessness services in the department’s Rockingham region.

“We need a change in the family courts, Homewest and child support,” Mr Horton said. “Women are seen as the primary caregiver of children and are favoured in the court system. This may be the case most of the time, but not all the time. Fathers who want to be with their children should have some support.”