SHELTER HOMES

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1928, Page 3

SHELTER HOMES

GROSS ABUSE ALLEGED.

SYDNEY, August 10.

The Department of Labour and Industry for many years controlled a shelter home at Bunnerong, known as the State labour depot for unemployed. That depot was opened for the express purpose of affording temporary shelter to those single men who were without means and friends. “During my last term of office,” said the Minister’ for Labour (Mr Farrar) yesterday, “I found that a number of the inmates at that depot had been in residence for as many as 20 years, and the majority for more than 10 years. The inmates made a home of it. and as the conditions were faiHy good they wore loathe to leave. The only way in which they could bo forced to leave was to close the place down, which was done.

“The shelter established by Mi; Spillman, of the Unemployed Union, is not the first that has been conducted by the unemployed in Sydney and elsewhere, and from the experience of the departmental officials it has been found that many of those shelters become the home of undesirables, and, in the long run, it has been very difficult to close them down, even when work becomes available for them all. The department receives complaints of a very serious nature regarding the conduct of the inmates of some of these shelters, and in the interests of the community it was found advisable not to assist such shelters. “In a number of cases it was necessary to refer the complaints to the police, for their co-operation in ridding the city of certain-undesirables, who easily found a home at shelters; and who, because they reported to those in charge of the shelters that they were in need of employment, remained indefinitely at such homes, although they had no intention of looking for work. The moment the department announces that it is prepared to provide blankets, food, and etc., for all those who care to go to shelters, it is quite likely that many undesirables will come from all parts of Australia to secure such an easy chance of making raids on the public. The department has a duty to the public, and it does not propose to encourage the congregation of single men at any depots.”