New look for Missionbeat – a Sydney icon

Mission Australia’s iconic Missionbeat support vans have a new look, and now include features that ensure greater safety and visibility for the inner-city homeless outreach service.

Missionbeat, which has been supporting Sydney’s homeless of more than three decades, took delivery of two new Hyundai Imax vans this week thanks to significant funding from corporate supporters, including HSBC.

Today one of our new Missionbeat vans is on display at the entrance of the HSBC Building in George Street, Sydney - home to both HSBC and Mission Australia’s head offices.

"HSBC really admires the work that Missionbeat does in Sydney,” said Gavin Powell, HSBC Head of Global Markets on seeing the new van for the first time. “You've only got to speak to an handful of the people Missionbeat touches each day to understand what an incredibly valuable contribution it makes to Sydneysiders in need.

“HSBC is committed to supporting the communities in which we operate locally and globally and Missionbeat is an important part of our community work in Australia."

Updating the Missionbeat fleet provided a perfect opportunity to refresh the look of the service vehicles. The two new Hyundai vans, along with an existing Toyota Commuter, have undergone a full 'vehicle wrap' and are now sport a deep blue Sydney cityscape, the Missionbeat number (1300 306 461, which can be accessed nationally for the cost of a local call) in large, reflective red lettering, and emergency vehicle-style lighting that make them more visible by night.

The vans, which for the past decade have been predominately white, are well known to inner-city workers and residents. Driven by experienced Community Service Workers, Missionbeat vans patrol the streets from 7am to 11pm daily, seeking out people in distress and offering support.

Covering around 30,000 kilometres a year, the vans transport homeless men, women, children and families, and intoxicated or drug-affected people to support services that provide safe accommodation, medical care, food and clothing.

Missionbeat van drivers are joined by their outreach worker colleagues on bikes who criss-cross the city, talking to people sleeping rough in the alleys the vans are unable to access.

Daniel estimates that his team interacts with at least 50 people living on the streets each day, and expects the vans will transport about 20 people a day.

“Missionbeat is sometimes the only friendly face rough sleepers see – so that interaction means a lot,” said Missionbeat Manager Daniel Petsalis. “The friendship and trust our drivers and riders share with people on the streets is so important.

“The clients love the new van and our staff are chomping at the bit to drive it,” he added.

Community Service Worker Danielle May agreed that the new vans will make a big difference: “This van is very user-friendly and accessible to our clients – especially as the doorstep is lower and easier for people who are not quite as mobile to climb inside.”

A few of the rough sleepers who saw the van on its maiden run around Belmore Park and George Street were impressed, with comments ranging from “pretty cool” and “awesome” to “It shows how big your hearts are!”

You can follow Daniel’s daily rounds on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DanMISSIONBEAT

Homelessness facts:

• 16,375 people sleep rough in Australia each night – and of these, 3,559 will be in New South Wales. (Chamberlain & MacKenzie, 2008, Counting the Homeless 2006).
• On the last Census night (2006) nearly 105,000 people were homeless in Australia. And based on the Census, on any one night in Australia there are around 7,500 homeless families with children – comprising 26,790 people. Families make up 10% of all homeless households, but are a quarter (26%) of all homeless people.
• In 2007-08, on average 735 people were turned away from a government-funded homeless accommodation service each day. The majority needed accommodation within 24 hours. (AIHW 2009. ‘Demand for SAAP accommodation by homeless people 2007–08’)
• Recent data from government-funded accommodation services show an average of 81% of couples with children, 75% of couples without children and 71% of individuals with children who requested immediate accommodation are turned away each day. (AIHW, 2010, Demand for government-funded specialist homelessness accommodation 2008-09: A report from the SAAP National Data Collection.)
• In 2009-10, the reasons given for seeking accommodation at specialist homelessness services included domestic or family violence, relationship or family breakdown, financial difficulty, problematic drug/alcohol/substance use and mental health issues. (AIHW, 2010, Government-funded specialist homelessness services: SAAP National Data Collection annual report 2008-09 Australia.)