The old wooden Ex-Players’ Stand at Kardinia Park was moved from Geelong’s main stadium to a nearby oval in 2008.

Local footy fans once cheered their heroes from the hard bench, but for much of the last week two rough sleepers have been living there.

Amy Flint and Maggie O’Neill are board members of Outpost, the only homeless service that provides no-questions-asked food, clothing and support every night in the second largest city ​​of Victoria.

This week, they sleep rough, survive on support services like the one they run, and learn about the daily realities of life for people living on the streets.

Despite their already in-depth understanding of homelessness in Geelong, unexpected lessons were still learned.

“Our city is not designed to support the homeless,” Ms. Flint said, sitting next to her sleeping bag she received from a local helpline a few nights earlier.

“When everything stops in the city at 9:30 in the evening, literally everything stops. There is no access to toilets, there are no hot showers after 10 a.m. and water is so rare in our city.

The experience also reinforced the importance of support services like theirs.

“Our community is supported by primarily volunteer-run, community-funded organizations, and these are the people who keep people alive,” she said.

“But what we discovered is that there is actually nothing other than the outpost in the evening: you only have one choice, and that is the outpost. job.”

The outpost left out in the cold

While the outpost is the center of support for those in need during Geelong’s evenings, it has also become the center of a political row – with the state government accused of breaking a promise election to find a new home for the charity.

The commitment was made by Daniel Andrews in 2022, after the outpost was forced to close its doors.

Since 2000, the Outpost has been welcoming customers from a small corner of the Busport building in Geelong’s CBD, a 3,218m² multi-storey building including parking and offices.

Space in the city-owned Busport building was donated to the charity by the city in a “pepper lease” — a nominal payment typically as small as $1.

On a typical day, the association provides hot meals, takeaways, clothing, bedding and other essential items to between 20 and 80 people during lunch and dinner services.

But amid a financial crisis in early 2022, the City of Greater Geelong has decided to sell prime CBD real estate to “help balance future budgets” and reduce borrowing for key projects such as its shiny new $102 million municipal headquarters – built right across the street from Busport.

Although the sale left the outpost out in the cold, the city could not find a replacement location for the charity, leading to fears it would be forced to close.

Then, on November 15, 2022, Daniel Andrews, the then Prime Minister, came to town during his election tour of the state.

And with it, came the promise to save the outpost.

“There is a problem because we have an outstanding homeless service who may well end up homeless,” Mr Andrews said.

“Now we don’t want that, so what I can commit to today, if we get re-elected, we will provide $50,000, which is money to help them, and then Chris (Christine Couzens , Member of Parliament for Geelong) and I, relevant “Ministers will work to find a permanent home for Outpost – and it will be free. “

“We will put all the government resources into it and find them a place to live, and it will be on that pepper rate.”

It was more than a lifeline for the outpost: it was a promise to secure its future.

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How long before an election promise is considered broken?

Although the $50,000 was distributed – along with a further $52,000 earlier this year – the government failed to find a new location for the charity, which has now been forced to sign a commercial lease costly as he received his final marching orders from Busport by the end of December.

A typical commercial lease for a CBD space such as the one the Outpost is preparing to open is around $50,000 – while the Outpost’s financial documents show its total annual operating expenses over the past four years have varied between $20,000 and $50,000.

The government’s broken election pledge was branded a “broken promise” by Polwarth MP Richard Riordan, who announced a matching promise to save the outpost in 2022 as shadow housing minister.

“The worst thing is a broken moral promise,” Mr. Riordan said.

“To think that the government could have stood there in the run-up to the 2022 election and promised Geelong’s most vulnerable that they would help improve security and the delivery of basic services, and two years later it has failed to deliver. still wasn’t close to solving the problem.

“This is not a negotiable promise for the Allan government. They have done it and they have given false hope to those who need it more than anyone. It is not enough.”

But the Outpost remains hopeful that the state government will keep its promise of free, permanent residency.

“We are really grateful for the support from the State Government so far, particularly from Christine Couzens, who is one of our incredibly trusted advocates,” Ms Flint said.

“We look forward to working together to secure a permanent location in the future.”

Government steps up commitment to finding new home for outpost

Contacted by the ABC, the state government did not explain why it had been unable to fulfill its promise to the Outpost, but pledged to continue “to work with The Outpost to find a location appropriate “.

But the Government did not respond to a question asking whether it would commit to fully funding the charity’s commercial lease until a permanent home was found.

Instead, ABC questions directed to the relevant Premier or Minister were answered with a statement from an anonymous Victorian Government spokesperson.

“Homes Victoria has conducted extensive consultations with Outpost to understand its key site requirements and has worked with Greater Geelong City Council to explore government land in the Geelong CBD and surrounding areas,” indicates the press release.

“The outpost independently offered commercial space and separately entered into a two-year term.”

Outpost service users such as Charlene Manno – who has come to Busport almost daily for the past decade – said there would be a gaping hole in the town’s support services if the outpost body charity was one day forced to close.

“If this place closes, what will happen to the homeless?” » asks Ms. Manno.

“Are we going to see them rot? Are we going to see them disappear? Like, what are they?

“What’s going to happen?”