Wheels of Wellness loses funding battle

By Isabella Guzman Gonzalez

THE number of homeless people in Cairns seeking refuge from the streets is set to increase with the closure of a critical day respite homeless service due to lack of funding.

Cairns-based charity Wheels of Wellness (WoW) will cease to offer their day hub services to homeless people from today.

Since July of 2022, over 1,700 people – more than 80 per day, have accessed the WoW Hub for social, emotional and wellbeing support. Of the patrons, 900 claimed to have spent the night on the streets, in a park or in a makeshift tent.

WoW began delivering day respite wellbeing services 18 months ago on top of their standard medical and social work services, and they became highly successful in a matter of months.

People sleeping rough go past the WoW building on Grove St for a shower, a cuppa, medical services, a chat and even a nap, providing a much-needed rest after a night on the streets.

WoW CEO Yolonde Entsch said the Hub has gone unfunded from the beginning.

“WoW cannot continue to rely on volunteers with lived experiences, businesses and the community to keep our day respite service open,” Ms Entsch said.

“The day respite that we’ve been providing for about 18 months, happened organically and unfunded.

“We opened the building up so that people who had an appointment or were seeing a health worker could come in and have a cup of tea while they waited.

“I don’t know what happened, but there is a crazy network on the streets, and word got out that you could come to the WoW Hub and just hang out and relax.

“The next thing I knew, we had up to 80 people coming through our doors each day, and we aren’t funded to provide day respite, so we had to rely on businesses and the community to support us in providing these services,” she said.

Ms Entsch said WoW Hub clients were saying there are no other day services for homeless people in Cairns.

“Our folks were saying that there is no service in Cairns where homeless people can go during the day to get a little respite from the street,” she said.

“We also provide a laundry service, and people can come here to have a shower. If you want to use the stretcher, you need to shower, and you can sleep for up to four hours.”

WoW initially operated as a mobile outreach program that uses mobile GP and nurse clinics to deliver healthcare to people affected by homelessness. The Hub expanded those to a range of new services not covered in the funding.

“Our funder, the NQPHN, has categorically stated that we are not to use their money to provide social or emotional wellbeing support to vulnerable people unless it is done by a GP or an allied health worker,” she said.

“Besides that, as a GP practice, we have to become accredited, and because we’re operating from a CWA hall, we will never be accredited in this building, so we don’t have a choice; we have to move.”

Ms Entsch explained the WoW Hub in Grove St only remained open because of the financial support provided by Bresnahan Footprint Foundation and that her attempts to secure funding through State Government had all failed.

“If we were to receive funding, we could continue operating the respite service out of the Hub, and that would mean more beds for people to sleep in,” she said.

“That’s the proposal I’ve given to Mr Healy (State Member for Cairns), Mr Crawford (State Member for Barron River) and Mr Pitt (State Member for Mulgrave).

“Mr Pitt’s office has responded, but the other two haven’t. I must say that Mr Healy’s staff are amazing, but I can’t get an appointment with him and I have tried.

“Mr Healy is our state member; he is our voice and advocate, but what I’ve heard from him is ‘the Department said there is no funding’, but I need him to be shaking the cages and for him to see for himself the importance of the service we’re providing.

“Because these people, where are they going to go now?” Ms Entsch said.

Due to the massive impact the WoW Hub has had on homeless people, Ms Entsch said she feels responsible for preventing her clients from going back to the streets.

“It doesn’t have to be government; if I could find a philanthropic partner as I did with Bresnahan Footprint Foundation who wanted to get behind this next six months, we could keep going,” she said.

“But I can’t do it without funding because I need security; I need a social worker based here, a support worker, so you’re talking about their salaries, rent and all of those ongoing costs.

“There is a man who comes to the Hub who I didn’t see for three weeks; when he finally came, I asked him, ‘Where have you been?’ He said, ‘In hospital for three weeks’. He had had surgery and had internal and external stitches and a colostomy bag, and he had been discharged into homelessness.

“He’d been sleeping in the mangroves with an open wound; that was my rock bottom on what is socially acceptable; we found him crisis accommodation, but he would’ve ended up at the ED within a short period.

“If the Hub weren’t here, we would never have connected with him, ever.”

Ms Entsch said more needs to be done to prevent other outreach services and not-for-profits from shutting down.

“More funding needs to go into grassroots organisations delivering programs on the ground,” she said.

“We need what I would call a super homeless wellbeing centre where all of those services that receive funding for homeless support, we all come together and co-locate so when someone who is homeless walks through the door, they have that wrap around.

“Because let’s not kid ourselves, there is no accommodation. What I’ve been told by the Department of Communities when I say, ‘why don’t we organise dormitory-style accommodation?’ I’m told that this is not dignified.

“But guess what, there’s no housing; the alternative is sleeping on the street; how is that dignified?

“We’re pushing people further out. It’s just not ok,” Ms Entsch said.

From Monday, February 6, Wheels of Wellness will only provide GP-led clinics and allied healthcare to marginalised, vulnerable or homeless people.