Safe Shelter hopes to open homeless refuge in Queanbeyan

Inadequate emergency support for the homeless population has required service providers to hand out tents and sleeping bags or drive people to a shelter in Braddon.

Elaine Lollback, co-ordinator of St Benedict's, a homeless and vulnerable person's support service, made eight winter trips to Canberra for homeless people who desperately needed emergency overnight accommodation.

Braddon-based Uniting Church's Safe Shelter management centre offers a place for men to stay for three nights a week in winter – and provided refuge to almost 100 people last year.

Safe Shelter has called for other churches or community halls to offer shelter for the homeless during winter, but Queanbeyan's Uniting Church was the only organisation to answer the call.

Minister Steve Costersaid opening the church as a Safe Shelter was ultimately at the mercy of Queanbeyan City Council, but initial signs were positive that it could be operating within months.

"It's a definite possibility but we're going to have to work very hard to make it happen," Mrs Lollback said.

"It is for people who can't access particular services for whatever reason, or its out of hours.

"If they're in that sort of situation, they can have somewhere safe for them to be overnight."

Mrs Lollback said she was aware of at least five or six people who were sleeping in their cars in Queanbeyan.

"I'm aware of others who have ended up sleeping rough because there was no other option," she said.

The church's homeless group, headed by June Lawrence, is hoping plans to expand Safe Shelter come to fruition before winter sets in.

The Safe Shelter is slated to be open by the end of April, subject to council approval and safety inspections.