星空视频

By Elspeth Hull

When I first came into social housing back in 1999, it was still called Wentworth Area Community Housing. In Katoomba, it was run by Mary Gentles in a tiny little office opposite the St Vincent de Paul second-hand shop on Waratah Street. As a life-long welfare recipient due to having bipolar disorder, I needed assistance to access affordable housing after a relationship breakdown. To enable me to stay in the private rental that was my home, I applied to have WACH take over the lease. It took twelve months for this to happen, with me turning up at the office monthly to ask where I was on the waiting list.聽

When WACH did take over my lease, it enabled me to stay in a very beautiful home in South Katoomba for the following 23 years. During my twenties, I had moved thirteen times in thirteen years due to mental instability. I can鈥檛 state strongly enough how much having stable housing contributed to my being able to stabilise my mental health.鈥� For this, I will be eternally grateful to community housing, because in these times of a devastating housing crisis, very many people are not so lucky.聽

Growing up in Brisbane, I was the child of a WWII veteran father and a mother whose radical Christianity was inextricable from her commitment to social justice. This was in the 70鈥檚 when we had the Fitzgerald enquiry into the corruption of the Queensland State government and all the anti-racism protests about the South African Springbok rugby tours.鈥� Mum taught me that if there is something going on around you that you don鈥檛 like, then you do something about it, which is one of the reasons I joined the Tenants鈥� Advisory Group. If you want your voice to be heard, you need to come to the table.鈥�聽

Mum believed that everyone always does their best and that everyone just wants to be loved. When people are behaving badly, it鈥檚 because they don鈥檛 have the capacity to meet their needs in a healthier way. I鈥檓 not sure I entirely agree with her, but it is a gentle view of the world. She worked tirelessly in the community as an activist and educator for social justice, especially anti-racism. She also ran workshops about trans-personal psychology, and throughout her life ran spiritual healing groups, creating safe spaces for mystics and psychics to share their experiences without being labelled 鈥榙oolally鈥�, or psychotic.聽

When I left home at age 16, I lived in South Australia for 13 years.鈥� This is where I moved around a lot, as a result of having undiagnosed bipolar disorder. In my twenties, I just thought I was a bad, lazy person who couldn鈥檛 hold down a job or get it together to have a lasting relationship. My self-esteem was very low. It was not until I moved to the Blue Mountains and lived with Mum again for a couple of years that I was finally diagnosed and began receiving medical treatment. Around the time of my diagnosis, I met my kids鈥� dad, and my daughter and son were born.聽

In 2005, I did a TAFE course for women transitioning into the workforce after being out of it for an extended period. This led to employment at a local public school, where I supported Aboriginal kids in their learning. It also involved creating a culture in the school that invited Elders to help establish programs through the school鈥檚 Community Room, welcoming parents to join in building pride in Culture. After doing this for nine years, in 2014-2015 I coordinated a project working with the local Elders across ten schools and early childhood education centres, from Hazelbrook to Mt Victoria.聽

This project focused on creating language resources to embed culture in schools and build on a school Totem Project that had already been started by the local Aboriginal Community. This was a way of helping kids to observe their environment and understand the cultural concepts of respect for the spirit of the land, Belonging, and how to come into the right relationship with Country. As part of this project, Elders worked with the schools to develop ceremonies designed to share knowledge and teach ways of being in traditional Community.聽

In 2015, I went into semi-retirement due to burnout resulting in some major health challenges.聽

When I was evicted from my home in South Katoomba after 23 years鈥� occupancy in May 2022, it was particularly challenging, because we were all still recovering from the devastating fires and floods of the Black Summer, followed by the February 2022 floods. These factors exacerbated the NSW housing crisis, with so many more people destitute and in need of emergency accommodation. Virtually no accommodation suiting my medical needs was available in the Lithgow/Blue Mountains local government areas. Link Wentworth staff did their best to reassure me that all efforts were being made to find housing which met my health requirements and would see me safely housed into the future as I age. Six long months after the eviction, I signed a lease on my unit in the very beautiful Upper Blue Mountains. It was worth the wait!聽

Something that sustains me during what can be cruel ups and downs in a bipolar life is my membership of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, as we are more commonly known. Quakers are widely known for their pacifism and are the only church with a seat at the United Nations, due to our global reputation as peacemakers. I convene our national Fellowship of Healing and over the past few years, I was very involved with online teaching as well as supporting our residential and healing retreat, the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre at Bungendore. Due to my failing health, my capacity to continue these services is greatly limited, and I am turning my attention to my local community.聽

These days, I take great delight in getting to know my neighbours. Some of us love the work of gardening together to beautify the grounds of our complex and uplift our spirits. I look forward to working with the Link Wentworth community outreach workers, to develop our gardening projects over time. As we age, if we are lucky, small joys bring great comfort. Nothing offers peace and comfort like a shady garden bower or a flash of bright floral joy, as we go about our days.聽