Kit and Joey's Fresh New Start Fund

Hi, my name is Kit, my brother Joey and I are homeless. I am 27 and Joey is 29, and we have been in our current situation since the start of covid- though throughout our lives from the age of 12 for me, we were homeless many times on and off, due to having been raised in foster care and having appalling foster families "take care of us".

Right now, Joey and I sit in Randwick every day and try to raise $60 ($30 each) a day to pay for a night at a hostel or backpackers. I usually play guitar, but at the moment I have a broken arm (a hairline fracture on the humerus bone).  What Joe and I do each day is absolutely humiliating. Even for me, playing guitar, I get people who call out awful, rude and downright ignorant things to me. It is so dehumanising, in that when I smile at someone walking down the street, sure, some will smile back. Most will either look away quickly or stare vacantly at me without any expression on their faces, or a wearing a mask of utter bewilderment- or worst of all-  some will make an audible noise of contempt, and shoot me a withering look of disgust that chills my spine.

 The thing I hear called most often is "why don't you get off your ass and get a job?" 

To which no one EVER sticks around to hear the response. Fact is; it really is rather difficult to get a job when you're homeless- I mean, leave out the fact that employers generally won't hire someone who hasn't showered in a week, or only has the one set of clothes they wear every single day, leave out even that Joey dropped out of High School in year 9 and I only went to year ten, thinking that I should get a job and help with bills soon as possible, so any qualifications anyone had who was applying for the same position as us would just be a better prospect employment wise. Even without all those issues (and plenty others), even if I DID miraculously get hired- I'd have to work for a week or two before I even got a paycheck- which for us would mean sleeping on the street-or, rather, not sleeping- every night, then working each day, which would be a horrid experience, especially for me. 

The reason for this is I have a bowel condition called Ulcerative Colitis. It is debilitating to the extreme, and for me to sleep outside in the cold on the hard ground would cause me excruciating pain the next day- if I then had to work through that, I would be risking a flare up of my UC, which would involve heavy internal bleeding from ulcers in my digestive system, which, if serious enough, could kill me. Another difficulty is that Joey has a criminal record and has been to jail several times in the past (though he hasn't been locked up or arrested or charged for anything in 5 years now!), 

This makes it even harder for him to find employment, a homeless ex-con with a limited education just isn't an employers idea of a prize catch. So, getting a job right now isn't really realistic, but when we have a home we can finally start to find work that suits us.

On top of having no home, very few posessions and clothes, Joey and I are both in debt for various reasons, leaving us with very little of Joey's Centrelink for food each week, both require multiple medications for physical and mental illnesses, and both are sick of being treated like vermin when people walk past us, assuming we are horrible people because of what we do.

That is the worst part of all this. That people assume we are lying, or junkies, or alcoholics, but they never take the time to come and speak to us and learn who we are.

My brother Joe is the most kind hearted, loving and compassionate man I know. He is my hero and I love him. I'm sure I have some good qualities too. I just wish people could see past the homelessness and see that.

Anyway, now I've told you our past and present, I'll tell you what I hope for our future. We are hoping to raise enough money to pay for my birth certificate name change to get photo ID, so that we can get bond on a house, a few weeks rent in advance so we can search for work and set up Centrelink for me and apply for rent assistance, buy some furniture and pay off part- or, God willing- all of our collective debts.

The goal I've set is rather high, and I don't expect to reach that at all, but if we can make even enough for just a bond and a few weeks rent, that would be fantastic. Once we have a place of our own, we can hit the job search HARD, I will be able to get a good night's sleep in a bed and be able to start looking for ANY form of employment, I can even go to uni like I've always wanted. If we raise enough money this way we may even pay off our debts, so we will have more money left over for rebuilding our lives.

I really hope you can help us, this could be a fresh start for us, a chance to rebuild our lives and start again.

I just want to add an enormous thank you to the people who have already donated to me, you are all incredible and generous people. You have all kindled within me a faith in the kindness and generosity of decent people- that I never knew existed! Now I know that we are going to be okay. I am optimistic like I have never been in bad times before, and for the first time in a long time-

I feel hope.

Thank you all very much for reading, and GOD BLESS YOU ALL!! Xx