Hunkering down
e-connect examines the links between climate and service delivery in Melbourne’s winter.
e-connect: Of those 60-80 people who are helped at Melbourne Project 614’s Hamodava Cafe overnight, every night, how many are younger people? Major Brendan Nottle: The vast majority of people would be in their mid to late 40s and upwards. But, having said that, a week ago we had two 10-year-olds come in at 3.00 a.m. So there are some young people coming through to that service, but they are in the minority.
During the day we have young people coming through to the cafe as well, coming in desperate need of support. But the street bus would still have the greater impact for us when it comes to young people.
Is there any sign of racial prejudice evident, either in the diners themselves or the general community? BN: We’re pretty fortunate not to experience that; we do have Indigenous people come through and we haven’t sensed any discrimination against them, nor against the African people or the Asian people who come to us.
With winter temperatures and cold snaps, what’s the connection between 614 and hospitals?
BN: While the café is open at night, we run another program, seven nights a week, called Nightwatch, where teams go out on the streets; we try and connect street people back to the café. Nightwatch also goes to emergency departments at the major hospitals in the city, where we engage with people who may not have medical issues but end up at the hospitals.
Those people may be homeless, lonely, or bored, or they may have mental health issues. We connect with them, in partnership with the hospitals, and invite them to come back to the night cafe.
We’ve developed a strong connection with the emergency department at St Vincents Hospital, and also at the Alfred Hospital, and we are in the process of developing a similar relationship with the Royal Melbourne Hospital as well. Also we have a good connection with Ambulance Victoria, so we have paramedics who are dropping patients into us, people who have non-medical issues who need support or somewhere safe to go for the night.
Victoria Police are dropping people off to us also, or calling us to go and pick people up – so we are going to the police stations around the city and collecting people who are homeless, and sleeping in their police station waiting rooms. They are coming back to the Night Cafe, too.