St Vincent De Paul Support Services officially opened its office containing the Men's Homeless Services, Care Program, New England Outreach in Marsh Street on Friday. The three arms of the support services now operate from their office just up from Domino's Pizza.
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Armidale Men's Homeless Service team leader Tracey Smolders said the service was originally based at Freeman House.
This office is all about support services.
- Elodie Druitt
"We opened a new office here in Marsh Street just before Christmas," she said.
"We look after homeless men in the community and single men with kids and try to help them get housing."
Acting regional clinical director for drug and alcohol at Freeman House Elodie Druitt said the house was essentially the place where single men have been going for the past 40 years.
"There are some beds up at Freeman House that Tracey essentially case manages," Elodie said.
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"My role in this office is the New England Outreach Program, supporting people who may have a dependency or mental health concern who live in the community."
The community lives inside an area roughly from Tenterfield out to Moree and down to Tamworth, certainly all of New England.
Hilary Schultz is the Continuing and Coordinated Care Program coordinator.
"We help manage all the issues and complexities that prevent men from either receiving treatment or engaging in treatment or remaining in treatment," she said.
"It could be homelessness, mental illness or family breakdown, lots of different odds and end that make it hard for people to put their recovery first."
Hilary said they worked with people with all sorts of addictions, alcohol being quite prevalent.
Tracey said all their clients basically had the same barriers.
"If someone comes in and they're not suitable for one program we can refer them to another. So, between us all, we can kind of wrap around all the services that they need," she said.
