A TENT and a few belongings were all Erika Petersen had four weeks ago – that and a baby growing inside her.
Anti-Poverty Week (October 17-22) is a stark reminder, social service providers say, that people like Miss Petersen aren’t just a Sydney phenomena, and that regional people require the same help, perhaps more.
Her tent was just metres from civilisation in some scrub at Grahamstown Dam. Yet she hadn’t seen a doctor since before she fell pregnant.
The 32-year-old had been couch surfing in Raymond Terrace with the brother of a friend, after she had fled a long, abusive relationship and lost custody of three children.
Pleased to at least have a roof over her head she at first ignored what began as subtle sexual advances from her housemate.
“Eventually he said, ‘if you’re not going to have sex with me, get out’,” Miss Peterson said.
“I packed my bags and left, I thought, ‘I don’t need a roof’.”
In hindsight Miss Petersen said she might have stood her ground.
But then she had worked so hard to distance herself from her ex, the father to her three older children – so she ran.
Ran, because the emotional and physical scars were still fresh. Just a year earlier police were forced to intervene when they saw him hit her in High Street, Maitland. It was the final blow that drove a lasting wedge between them, since he’d previously hospitalised her and her baby, then just six weeks old.
In her tent and out of work her only income was her fortnightly Newstart allowance. But her job agency froze the payments when she was a ‘no-show’ for interviews.
“I didn’t want to leave my tent, I had all my possessions there and I didn’t want to lose them,” she said.
“At one stage I went for more than a week without a shower.
“In my sleeping bag at night I’d be scared, I could hear the wild pigs outside.”
It was all too much. At her next appointment Miss Petersen yelled at one of the Centrelink staff – out of desperation – when questioned why she hadn’t been in.
A social worker then realised the seriousness of her situation and referred her to Port Stephens Family and Neighbourhood Services (PSFANS).
She attended one session and was hesitant to go back. First homeless at 15 – when she fled her step dad – experience had made her weary.
“In my life I’ve heard people say they can help… I was sick of people pissing in my pocket,” she said.
“It took a while to come back for a second meeting.”
That’s when she met Kyee Anderson from the PSFANS homelessness team. That meeting brought to an end three months in the tent.
“I hadn’t seen a doctor until that point and I was 26 weeks. I knew I was pregnant but I didn’t know how far,” she said.
A month has passed since Miss Petersen was moved into a fully-furnished two bedroom unit. She’s reunited with her mum for the first time in 17 years. The baby is due in two weeks.
“I’ve gone from feeling very depressed, feeling like I’d be better off dead, to feeling for the first time that I’m in control,” she said.
Her thoughts now run to a reunion with her children.
“This will be my fourth, I don’t have custody of the other three,” she said.
“I did care but I didn’t fight for them in court; I knew I wasn’t right for them then, I am now.”
Drugs were a problem, she confided. Miss Petersen’s now two years clean.
“I’ve struggled with drugs since I was 16,” she said.
“I know I’m better than that now… I’ve cut myself off from that group of people.”
The PFANS centre on Jacaranda Street, Raymond Terrace, has proved to be a wealth of support.
“Kylee’s become almost a second mum to me,” she said.
“Knowing the faith she has in me I don’t want to let her down.
“They’re like my extended family down here.
“Kylie will be the first person I call when I go into labour.”
PFANS manager Colleen Whittle said her staff had watched demand grow 20 per cent for emergency services but had suffered a 30 per cent cut in funds in that same period.
“Port Stephens has some of the highest rates of disadvantage in the state,” she said.
“Our concern is that the current government is proposing cuts to welfare benefits and also plans to make young jobseekers wait for a month to access unemployment benefits.
“We fear will have devastating outcomes on our already entrenched poverty situation in our area.”
Port Stephens Family and Neighbourhood Services – 4987 1331.
