A group of homeless men living in tents behind a Salvation Army office in Adelaide’s northeast are being forced to move on — but there is nowhere else for them to go, with homeless shelters full across the city.
Peter Woodforde is one of the four men living in a gazebo behind the office on Reservoir Rd in Modbury because he cannot find an affordable place to live in the current rental crisis.
The 58-year-old, affectionately known as Woody, has been staying there for the past 18 months after various councils moved him on from other areas.
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Woodforde claimed the group of men, aged between 30 and 80 years old, had been given until the end of August to relocate because of complaints from residents about tents near their homes.
He said the men were feeling incredibly stressed about finding a new place to stay.
“If you haven’t got just a basic shelter … you’re just as bad as an animal, sleeping in a rabbit warren or under a bush … there’s no difference,” Woody said.
“Until people are put in this situation, how much thought process do they put into it before they open their mouth and say something?
“If it happened to them tomorrow or to somebody they loved, how devastated would they be?”
Emergency accommodation shelters across Adelaide are all at capacity, with St Vincent de Paul turning away 15 men a day because it cannot keep up with demand.
The Hutt St Centre, which offers a range of support for people experiencing homelessness, said since the beginning of 2024 it has received 400 new clients — equivalent to a week-on-week increase of 25 per cent.
So the chances of the Modbury group finding an alternative place to stay are slim, unless support agencies can find them accommodation.
The SA Housing Authority said the average wait for public housing for category one applicants was seven months in April but could now be as long as 18 months.
Some locals in Modbury have made public call-outs to landlords and caravan parks to help the group.
The Salvation Army said the men continued to have access to shower, laundry facilities and food.
“The Salvos are working proactively with the North Western Homelessness Alliance to support these community members,” a spokesperson said.
The City of Tea Tree Gully said the Salvation Army did not have approval for temporary and permanent accommodation, so the men needed to relocate.
It said the council had not issued any legal notices or placed a timeframe on the relocation of the group.
Woodforde shared his heart-breaking story with 7NEWS.com.au, and said his children did not know he was living in a tent because it would be too painful for them to know.
He recently launched a campaign to raise funds to buy rough sleepers caravans so they would have a safe place to stay.
“It gives the person whose homeless a place where they feel safe, they’ve got shelter … they can move it around … you can decide the area you wish to stay in,” Woodforde said.
City of Tea Tree Gully Mayor Marijka Ryan previously told 7NEWS.com.au she was hoping to identify land where people could temporarily stay until they can access emergency accommodation.
The state government said it was aware of the homeless men’s circumstances, and that the North Western Homelessness Alliance was working housing them.
A spokesperson said the government would be willing to discuss with the council ideas it had to support people sleeping rough in the area.