00:00In a pocket of Adelaide's parklands, a small group of homeless men have banded together
00:07to run a makeshift camp, helping each other with the basics and acting as a support network.
00:13You could say we're a democracy almost. Everybody has their say here. You'd be amazed at conversations
00:20that can actually happen around here.
00:22Sticking together is also a matter of safety in numbers as they survive life rough sleeping.
00:28There's no way to describe to someone who hasn't been homeless what it's like.
00:33Hugh has been living on the streets for more than a decade.
00:36A house and a home, it's a very definite wall and line between what's yours, a space that's
00:43yours and the rest of the world. If you don't have that, there's no relaxing.
00:50For Mick, he became homeless four years ago after his nearly 20 year marriage broke down.
00:55There have been times where, you know, just even doing the simplest things become hard.
01:02Also helping Mick and Hugh through the hard times are outreach teams, who check in on
01:06the city's 200 or so rough sleepers and try to connect them to services. And they're meeting
01:11more and more people. Across the country, homelessness has surged by 22% in the last
01:17three years.
01:18There's a population of people who are exceptionally vulnerable to systems and to changes that
01:23we see through the rental market, changes that we see in cost of living crisis, and
01:27that is the population that experience rough sleeping.
01:30On days of extreme heat this summer, code reds will be declared, activating services,
01:35including call centres, to escape dangerous temperatures.
01:38The outreach teams become really important in getting the message out to people who are
01:43sleeping rough, that there is some really extreme weather coming, but also that there
01:49are options, options available for shelter.
01:52And in centres like this one in Adelaide CBD, several agencies are working under the
01:56one roof, trying to get people off the streets.
02:02Each success in finding someone a home is celebrated.
02:09While homelessness is a complex and challenging issue, it's also a major concern for many
02:14communities worried or frustrated by antisocial behaviour like fighting and drug use. All
02:20of which are valid issues, say those in the sector, but they're appealing for understanding.
02:25I think every community that has rough sleeping populations or homelessness can get really
02:30distressed about it, and often we hear, not in my backyard.
02:35What I would say is that services are there to support, and everybody deserves a home,
02:40and everyone deserves dignity.
02:42Mick is fighting to get back into a stable home, a process he knows will take one step
02:48at a time.
02:49Once you hit rock bottom, there's only really one way to go, isn't there?
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