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The census partly pre-dates an influx of new home buyers after COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 prompted many city dwellers to move to country towns. TOODYAYвЂ™S recent housing sales boom appears to have overtaken latest Australian census results published last month. вЂњMostly you never see them because they stay under the radar and out of sight,вЂќ Roz said.ДЄbout a third of ToodyayвЂ™s homeless population were Aboriginal people. Others lived out in the open in tents at secret locations to avoid discovery for fear of being told to move on by Shire of Toodyay rangers or police. One family living in a car included a mother with young children who went to hospital at the end of last month to give birth to another child. Others lived in vehicles under car ports or parked out in the open. Roz said most homeless women were вЂњcouch surfersвЂќ who stayed a few days or weeks at the homes of friends or relatives before moving elsewhere, sometimes after arguments with their hosts. вЂњWe provide frozen cooked dinners in plastic containers which homeless people can cook in a microwave oven on our front veranda (in Fiennes Street opposite the Toodyay FreemasonвЂ™s Hall) or take to where they are sleeping that night.вЂќ вЂњSome come looking for food at two in the morning. вЂњMost people who come in the night are people in their 30s. вЂњThey get paid fortnightly by Social Security and come to us when they run out of money the following week,вЂќ Roz said. Roz said IGA donations were used to cook 100 hot meals a week for homeless people. вЂњBetter that than throw it away,вЂќ Mr Carter said. Store owner Dean Carter said this had been happening for three or four years. вЂњI collected 30 litres of juice from there todayвЂќ Roz said. The donations included milk and fruit juice.

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Roz said that every morning she collected a supermarket trolley full of food that had reached its use-by date that day, donated by ToodyayвЂ™s IGA store. вЂњI also gave away three solar mobile phone chargers that were donated,вЂќ Roz said. The group also provided half a dozen two-person dome tents and seven single sleeping bags donated by local church members.

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Roz said her Toodyay Locals Care group had given more than 25 free blankets and doonas to homeless local people last month.

There were more homeless women вЂ“ some fleeing domestic violence вЂ“ in Toodyay than there were men. She said about 25 homeless people вЂ“ including 17 children вЂ“ recently moved to Perth where more support services were available. Another person aged in their 70s was living alone in what Roz called an вЂњabject hovelвЂќ in the Toodyay townsite.

Herald online