Donation Options
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When your ‘mattress’ is cardboard and your only warmth, a paper thin blanket... ... winter is brutal
If you’ve ever had to stand on concrete for more than a few minutes in winter, you’ll know how quickly the cold creeps through your body.
Now imagine lying down on that concrete at night and trying to sleep. The only thing between you and the ground is the cardboard you pulled out of a dumpster. Your only warmth a thin old blanket you put in a doorway earlier in the day, saving this ‘good spot’ for the night.
It’s no wonder winter lunch-times in Salvos Crisis Centres are so busy. People start queuing just after 11. Old men looking for a chair and a chat, teenagers loud and bouncing, quiet intense ones with faces like stone masks, and then people you might not expect – young families, embarrassed to be here.
Talk to anyone here and you’ll hear a story that will break your heart.
The dad who lost his job just when petrol prices and interest rates went up. He lost the family house and now can’t find a place for his wife and kids to stay because the rental market is so hard. The women with bruised bodies and souls from domestic abuse.The young people like Faith who ended up on the streets 5 years ago when she was 14. A girl full of hope that got lost somewhere. 25 days agoshe was stabbed in a city laneway, and is still - as I write - fighting for her life.
This is winter for the homeless, and it’s close to home. Your home.
Winter is our toughest time. It’s when we run out of food, run out of blankets … but never run out of people needing help.
 A gift of $160 can provide lunch-time meals for 70 people.
 Your gift of $105 can help supply blankets, hot showers and warm clothes
 With $60 you can fill a Salvos van with fuel so we can make it out to the parks and
squats with soup and blankets.
Your most important gift is making sure people don’t suffer the bitter cold of being alone.
Please send your urgent Salvos Winter Gift.
God bless you now as the warmth of your heart warms others.
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"Winter means desperation for the people who come here.
The crisis accommodation beds are all full. Daily we see people in tears.
They aren’t the long-term homeless. They’re just people who have been forced out of their homes by unemployment or sickness or domestic violence. They never thought they’d end up here, and often can’t believe it’s happened."
Kris – Street Outreach Coordinator at an inner-city Salvos Crisis Centre
… what keeps me going are the rays of sunshine that appear when people start to turn around and you see a change in their life.
I look at so many of the people we work with, and see they have so much potential, but they’ve never had the love and support and encouragement to bring it out. They get that here.
We may fall over sometimes. There are many hurdles along the way. But we’ll pick ourselves up again. I tell the guys ‘If you hang in with me, like we will hang in there with you, we’ll get there in the end.’
It means being available at all hours, all days. It’s not worker & client, it’s people with people.
Trust, open faith, and fresh starts – that’s what we give people.”
Fabian – manages a Salvos Crisis Centre.
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