'You don't need to be a rocket scientist to help people'

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns a growing number of people were doing it tough with increases in housing insecurity and unemployment. Some even faced homelessness for the first time in their lives.

If they were lucky, they crossed paths with the likes of Elise Takashima and Will Hawes, who stepped up to the task of helping those struggling to make it through.

As Sydney settles in to its new normal, we're recognising just a few of these local legends who've made a difference in the lives of some of Sydney's most vulnerable, both during the pandemic and beyond.

Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, Newtown

When Elise Takashima first came to Newtown as part of her work with faith-based leadership organisation Youth With a Mission she didn't expect to stay as long as she has.

"I came with the perspective that I was going to fill a role, play my part and head home, but when I arrived I discovered it was more than just doing a job, but finding a purpose in a place," she says.

As she settled into her new home in Newtown, she was struck by the number of people in need that she was encountering. Not wanting to sit back and just "tune it out", Ms Takashima started out with "really simple stuff" like buying groceries or having a chat or a coffee with the people she met on the streets.

"Pretty immediately the need of people on the streets drew my attention; I saw either people who sleep rough or who just are doing it tough on the streets I'm on everyday," she says.

"It takes a certain level of work for me to disconnect from that and pretend it's normal on the streets I call home."

After a while Ms Takashima wanted to be "more well resourced" so she got involved with the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on their outreach and referral programs. She says through this work she's learned homelessness is much more complex than she ever realised.

"It's been incredibly eye-opening and incredibly formative and I think I know so much more now than I did a year ago as to how and why a person may end up in the situation they end up in," she said.

"Homelessness is a really deeply entrenched problem in society and has a lot to do with systems and bigger things I didn't understand before."

COVID-19 began its spread around the world one year into Ms Takashima's stay in Newtown and she had a tough choice to make. Would she stay in Australia or would she return to her home in Los Angeles?

"Either way it felt like a risk, I was never completely sure," she says.

"I did know what going back to LA would look like, and I love it. But I stayed in Sydney because I felt like there was more, and that it was premature for me to leave."

Ms Takashima has only been living in the inner west for a short time but she says working with the community has made it feel like a "home" to her rather than a "hotel room". Her efforts even earned her recognition from the Inner West Council in their 2020 youth volunteer awards.

"I am fortunate enough to actually have a say about where I live in the world, for the most part, which is a wild privilege. And with that privilege comes responsibility," she says.

"You can live somewhere your whole life and act like a visitor, or you can live somewhere with residency and contribute to the atmosphere of that place and the people living there. To make a place home is to look around and see the needs and to see opportunities where you contribute and not wait for others to do it."

Will2Live, Lilyfield

Every Tuesday Will Hawes drives his van over to a public housing block in Lilyfield to deliver more than 100 cooked meals.

He grew up in the inner west and is the founder of Will2Live, a "non-judgemental" organisation which prides itself on providing food for rough sleepers and those in need without strings attached. It all started in 2012 with Will delivering sandwiches he made at home to rough sleepers in the city.

"I was living in my mum's house in Lilyfield for a long time and I just had no direction or purpose in life, and I was in my mid-30s and could see life getting past without doing anything," Mr Hawes says.

"The friends I had back then would ask me how long I'm going to keep doing this for, I was putting all my money and all my time into it. And I said I had nothing better to do with my life, and I'm happy to do it."

Having experienced housing insecurity himself, Mr Hawes knows what the people he works with are going through. He and his team of volunteers now deliver food to people in need across five locations, seven nights a week.

In ordinary circumstances, with no restrictions on gatherings, Mr Hawes and his team would set up a barbecue and invite rough sleepers in the CBD for a hot meal cooked fresh on site. Their work is about more than just providing food, it's about creating a safe and social space for those in need.

"You don't need a uni degree or to be a rocket scientist to help people," he says.

"It's about being dedicated and committed. At the end of the day, they're all just people who are down on their luck."

It was when a few of the rough sleepers who'd come to his barbecues in the CBD were provided housing in Lilyfield that he decided to expand to the inner west.

"They used to come [into the CBD] on a push scooter every day to get food, and then head home," Mr Hawes says.

"So that's how it started. I've also got a soft spot for Lilyfield because that's where I was born and bred."

The organisation has big ambitions for the future. They plan to transform an old Thai restaurant in Redfern into a training centre with an onsite cafe where the long-term unemployed can gain new job skills.

The centre will also have washing machines, change rooms and showers for rough sleepers to use.

"We'll have a commercial kitchen out the back too, where we can prepare hundreds of meals each day to distribute each night to people who need it."

Medal Mission Team and Acts of Kindness Community Outreach, Dulwich Hill

Inner west local Paul Shiel has been in the charity sector for a long time.

He was an active member of St Vincent de Paul for 35 years, even serving on the board for five years. As the organisation grew, he found himself wanting to get back into the field and help people more directly, with less bureaucracy.

"There were a couple of people I was friends with while I was there, other volunteers, we just kept visiting people that were lonely and isolated and needed assistance. And then before we knew it other people got on board and we started doing all kinds of different things," he says.

Along with his friend Sarah Morris, Mr Shiel started the Acts of Kindness Community Outreach initiative and the Medal Mission team. They serve up to 200 rough sleepers a week in Woolloomooloo in Sydney's inner east. It's about more than just giving food, Paul says, it's about creating a community.

"I used to take a few different snacks and things with my son down to Woolloomooloo, then it just kept growing. Now it's reached a point where every Wednesday night we serve food there," says Mr Shiel.

"It's all home-cooked food, really delicious and nutritious."

To avoid the bureaucracy Mr Shiel left behind, the group has no bank account or official funds and relies on the "providence of others" for supplies. Mr Shiel says he "loves the freedom" of not having to deal with money, and the community feel comfortable donating, knowing that what they give will go directly to the people who need it. One business Mr Shiel says has been especially helpful is the Dulwich Hill Fruit Market.

"They service us every week. [Owner Mehmet Kes] gives us about five boxes of beautiful, fresh fruit and veg. He actually purchases it especially for us, rather than just leftovers from the shop," he says.

"He did a deal with a bloke at the markets, who was happy to help us. It flows on."

All of the ingredients including meat and vegetables are stored in freezers in volunteers' houses and made available to home cooks, so they don't have to pay out of their own pockets. Mr Shiel says the group has close to 200 volunteers across their activities.

The volunteers all contribute in their own way: some cook meals, some join in with distributing food or chatting with rough sleepers and some collect blankets, bedding and other essentials. One man in Dulwich Hill even knits beanies.

"I don't know what his name is, but he makes the most amazing beanies on a loom. They're the best beanies I've ever seen, but he chooses to remain anonymous," says Mr Shiel.

"I always send a thank you but I am not sure who he is!"

For Mr Shiel, social media has been instrumental in sourcing both donations and volunteers. When he posts to Dulwich Hill and Marrickville Facebook groups, he is always overwhelmed with support.

"It's phenomenal. Many people want to help and they're not sure how. People these days might not want to give money, but when you do it local like this people know; 'if I make a big tray of lasagna, that's going to feed actual people'."

The Ville Food Pantry, Marrickville

Inspired by the Newtown Blessing Box, Marrickville neighbours Nicole Roberts and Daryl 'Daz' Byrne set up their own food pantry across the road from their apartment building.

Ms Roberts saw the Newtown blessing box and was thinking about how she could contribute without having a car. She kept her eyes out for a closer pantry and when she didn't see anything in the area she mentioned it to her upstairs neighbour Daz as they chatted over the balcony during lockdown.

"He's a bit of a go-getter, an entrepreneur, so he said 'yeah, let's do it'. Last year he was quite concerned about international students or food delivery riders, who didn't have enough money for food or to pay their rent."

Together the pair set up a pantry across the road from their building with a cupboard donated by The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre at Addison Road. How it works is simple - people can add non-perishable food items or household products to the pantry for others to take out as they need.

"In the first part of the pandemic last year I used to go shopping for it to put stuff in there because at that time a lot of people didn't know about it. But now we're lucky, it basically runs itself," says Ms Roberts.

"It's hard to tell what impact it's having, or if the food is going to people who really need it, but it also stops food waste and stops food going to landfill as well. It's pretty disgusting that we throw so much food away."

Val Lehmann-Monck was one community member who regularly dropped off food at the pantry. She and her teenage son picked up fresh bread from Le Bake bakery in Enmore to drop off to a number of pop-up pantries across the inner west, including in Marrickville.

Ms Lehmann-Monck's breast cancer means she doesn't have the energy for much physical work, so she does the driving and her son does the heavy lifting.

"We have five regular pantries we drop off close to our home, like the pantry in Marrickville. It's a lovely way to give back to the community and the environment," she says.

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