Cessnock-based outreach service Hunter Hands of Hope has made the difficult decision to cease operations.
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The volunteer-run organisation - which provides meals and support for homeless, disadvantaged and vulnerable people - will hold its final dinner service on Tuesday, June 29.
The service has been based at the Cessnock Tennis Club caretaker's cottage at Aberdare since early 2020, after previous bases in Vincent Street and the Cessnock TAFE grounds.
Co-founder and president Melissa Gontier said it was with "heavy hearts and much sadness" that the committee has made the decision to close the service.
Ms Gontier said rising operating costs and the inability to secure a permanent, stand-alone premises in the central business district was pivotal to that decision.
Hunter Hands of Hope has relied on grants, sponsorship and community donations since it started in December 2018.
Ms Gontier said not having a permanent space made it difficult for the service to meet criteria for funding.
She said the committee has investigated other options - including a shared space at a local church hall - but nothing appropriate or affordable emerged.
"We need a permanent place. We have so much to store - tents, clothing, food, blankets and more - that we can't have a casual setting," she said.
"Our service is an outreach service - we don't just provide dinner three nights a week.
"And if it's too far out of the CBD, families with kids in crisis care can't get there. We were having to drop food and items to people at their crisis accommodation."
Ms Gontier did not rule out reopening the service in the future, but said it was impossible to continue under the current circumstances.
"It was a hard decision to make but we just can't keep operating," she said.
"I can only imagine the impact it's going to have on our vulnerable in town."
Hunter Hands of Hope has grown exponentially since Ms Gontier and her mother Julie Hall started serving meals in the Cessnock TAFE grounds in late 2018.
The service moved into a Vincent Street shopfront a few months later, where it established itself as an outreach service, helping people-in-need to find housing and related services, with other organisations referring clients there at least once a week.
The Vincent Street building became unavailable at the end of 2019, and the service relocated to Aberdare in January 2020, only to close due to COVID-19 restrictions just two months later.
It resumed takeaway meals in June 2020 and resumed sit-down service in November, with up to 40 people attending three nights a week, and more than 200 people on its books since the service began.
Ms Gontier said the services provided over the past two-and-a-half years would not have been possible without the ongoing support of individuals, business houses and community groups.
"The generosity and kindness of the Greater Cessnock community has been exceptional and is both humbling and heartwarming beyond words," she said.
Cessnock MP Clayton Barr said NSW is facing a housing crisis, with more than 50,000 applicants are currently on the social housing waitlist, and specialised homelessness providers struggling to accommodate all requests.
He said local "champions" of the cause, such as Hunter Hands of Hope, need to be supported with some modest co-sponsorship by the government.
"There are many towns with incredible generosity being organised and delivered, through groups like Hunter Hands of Hope," he said.
"To date, these wonderful groups have had to fund and deliver services with no government support. This blind eye approach cannot continue."
Mr Barr says the growing number of constituents contacting his office requesting assistance with housing is of great concern. The Cessnock, Kurri Kurri and Lake Macquarie areas had 910 applicants on the General Housing Wait list and approximately 52 applicants on the Priority Housing Wait list as at June 30, 2020.
Mr Barr says this is a "substantial indicator" of the lack of available social housing in the state.
"These applicants are individuals and families who desperately need safe and secure accommodation, they can and have been waiting between five-to-10 years for a three-bedroom home," he said.
"It is disappointing this government has not put in place a strategy to immediately address the dire shortage of social housing properties needed in the Cessnock electorate.
"Homelessness and poverty are on the increase, not on the decline. Governments can no longer turn away from the responsibility to help people.
"For goodness sake, perhaps instead of spending millions of dollars to renovate the corporate boxes at stadiums where the elite sip champagne in air-conditioned lounges, how about we start spending some of that money on people sleeping in the cold and unable to afford the food, blankets and clothing needed for basic warmth and health."