By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

A PETITION is being pushed by local charity GCS – Raising Awareness One Drive at a Time to see a homeless shelter erected in the Latrobe Valley.

This would be a first of its kind for Gippsland, during a time in which the region is experiencing a true homelessness and housing crisis.

People concerned with the limited supports available in Moe for those living on the streets are coming out in full force endorsing the need for a safe place for struggling individuals to pick themselves back up.

The Moe outreach service has identified the Moe Gardens Caravan Park as a potential space, which at the February Latrobe City Council meeting, had its lease extended a further 12 months.

Founder of Raising Awareness One Drive at a Time, Abby Thetford said that the charity received great support from the community when they first posed the idea of starting a petition to acquire a homeless shelter for the area.

“There’s so many of them out there and they need the help,” she told the Express.

“Hopefully, council listen to us, it’s a big need.”

In just a few weeks, the books are filling with signatures quickly.

Petition stands are currently posted at a number of locations around Moe and Newborough, with the aim to extend to Traralgon, Morwell and Churchill.

Chair of the Gippsland Homelessness Network, Mitchell Burney advocated for any efforts being made by the community to turn the ship around.

“Ideally, in a good system to prevent homelessness, your investment is primarily medium to long term housing with wrap around supports,” he said.

“However, in the state of the housing crisis we are in now, and with significantly increasing rough sleeping in Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley, we have people needing urgent support now and I would certainly say we need more safe crisis options for our community, such as shelters and refuges for all ages.

“This would allow them to stabilise, link in with supports and work towards more sustainable forms of housing.”

Mr Burney is also the Head of Children, Youth and Housing Supports at Quantum Support Services.

Raising Awareness One Drive at a Time has been helping countless Moe families in need with food and clothing donations since they established in 2024, while also supporting the vast homeless community in the town.

Their demand is that high, which is evident of the hardships facing many in the area, that the charity has relocated out of the Moe Neighbourhood House into a previous address with all of their food, clothes, shoes, tents, and other supplies.

Given this extensive work and desire to help others, Ms Thetford added that the charity is happy to run or co-run the homeless shelter if need be, as long as it means a safe space is provided for these vulnerable people.

“We just want to get these guys off the street and get them into somewhere (that’s safe),” she said.

“They are happy to still be in tents, they just want to know that their tents are going to be safe and their stuff’s going to be safe.”

In getting people off the street, Ms Thetford said that it will go a long way to giving individuals a shot at private housing.

“It’s basically to get them to have references, so that when they’ll save up their money and then when they have enough money, they go and apply for a house, they actually have a reference,” she added.

“Because without a reference, they’re just getting turned down.”

At the moment, without a secure area to sleep, many are attempting to survive at risk of their tents being slashed and their few valuables stolen.

As of March, 2025, there was more than 7500 Gippsland households on the Victorian Housing Register Priority Access broadband list, during a time in which the region is also experiencing a 32 per cent increase (15.7 per cent) of households sleeping rough – in cars, in tents and out in the open.

Remarkably, it was also stated in the most recent Gippsland report that 11 per cent of those who accessed homelessness entry points were employed.

The local outreach has supported a number of people around Moe by providing tents, other essentials and goodwill.

The charity has one ultra success story so far, helping Chris Arends to get a roof over his head after years being on and off the streets.

“I found them (Raising Awareness One Drive at a Time) on Facebook. They’ve just been genuine, bought me a tent, delivered me food … general support is hard to come by,” Mr Arends said.

“I don’t have many greater words to say about their organisation.”

Mr Arends is supporting the initiative for a homeless shelter in Moe to better produce a pathway for people to break out of their struggles.

“Around here at the moment, it’s needed to help a lot of people,” he said.

“There’s a story behind every person, so many people need it.”

Ms Thetford declared that there is upwards of 20 people in the Moe area living on the streets, which is made more difficult given that fully fledged homeless refuges aren’t located across Gippsland.

There are no homeless shelters across the region as opposed to what’s seen closer to the city, and only six-week-stay youth refuges (16 to 25 year-olds) are housed in Morwell and Bairnsdale for a total of 14 beds.

The state government is in charge of ‘assertive outreach’, to directly engage with people who do not present to or have difficulty in engaging housing, homelessness or health services.

However, the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Plan established in 2018 by the then Andrews Labor government has since relapsed, with no focus on Gippsland going forward and instead on other regions and suburbs.

Social housing does exist in Moe, with seven homes built last year for Community Housing Victoria Limited, and the expectation of a further 16 social houses for Moe with the Haven Foundation by the end of 2026.

Berry Street also work to provide accommodation for young people experiencing homelessness through its GOALS (Going Out And Living Successfully) program.

Recently, the Community Housing Industry Association Victoria (CHIA Vic) warned the state government against axing promised mental health funding to support social housing.

CHIA Vic declared that the state government is quietly scrapping funding issued during the 2021/22 Budget, which allocated $40.4 million over four years to provide mental health support services for 2000 people in homes built under the Big Housing Build – which includes aforementioned social housing in the Latrobe Valley.

This goes against Victoria’s Royal Commission into the state’s mental health system, recommending the delivery of 2000 mental health supported homes.

A specialist homelessness services annual report released last December from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed Latrobe was one of the highest regions across the entire country for clients accessing homelessness services.

Around 7800 people sought support between 2024 and 2025, which includes requests, outcomes achieved, and unmet requests for services.

For more information on the charity and the petition, visit: GCS – Raising Awareness One Drive at a Time Inc on Facebook.