Stan Boreham had been sleeping rough on-and-off for 37 years until he was found at a Glenelg car park in Adelaide's south-west.
The 52-year-old amputee was picked up by homeless support group Toward Home Alliance — a partnership of major homelessness support service providers — who helped him find accommodation and healthcare.
"Life is looking better," he said.
"I intend to get back in the workforce again because I've got my forklift licence.
"Being an amputee and losing a leg [and being] in a wheelchair … [means] living on the street would have been so much harder for me."
Census data from 2021 revealed the number of people in Stan's situation had risen since the last survey.
South Australia recorded a jump in homelessness to 7,428, up from 6,224 in 2016.
Shelter SA said a higher number of women and First Nations South Australians experienced homelessness compared to the previous survey.
But the ABS said the data was captured at a time when state and territory governments offered homeless Australians temporary accommodation to protect them from COVID-19.
Toward Home Alliance senior manager Shaya Nettle said the Census data "under represents and under reflects" what support workers are seeing on the ground.
Ms Nettle said her group had seen a 30 per cent increase in demand since the Census data was captured 19 months ago.
Women reaching out to shelter in 'desperation'
Ms Nettle said the group has supported more than 4,500 people this financial year alone.
"About 80 to 85 per cent of people coming into the Toward Home Alliance are new to homelessness, which is troubling because we know every episode of homelessness can be traumatic," she said.
Ms Nettle said First Nations people represented just over a quarter of those Toward Home Alliance supported, despite making up only 2.4 per cent of the South Australian population.
She said over half of people (54 per cent) who accessed support from her service were women and more than a quarter (26 per cent) were children.
"The current system challenges that we're facing as a community disproportionately affect some groups more than others," she said.
'Everyone's story is different'
Catherine House engagement officer Jaylee Cooper said the state's only women's homelessness service has been unable to keep up with skyrocketing demand.
She said the service has experienced a 45 per cent increase in requests for support over the past year.
Ms Cooper said the past six months had been particularly challenging because the rental affordability crisis had left some women unable to pay rent.
"Our intake worker said to me recently that she's worked in the sector for 20-odd years and she's never actually heard the desperation in the voices of women contacting us for help than she is at the moment," Ms Cooper said.
Australian Alliance to End Homelessness CEO and executive director of the Adelaide Zero Project David Pearson said many of the systems that helped homeless South Australians during the pandemic when the data was collected have since been "turned off".
"We have gone back to 'business as usual' and we have seen really an increase in the trend of rough sleeping over the last little while since that data was collected on Census night," Mr Pearson said.
The Adelaide Zero Project compiles information from the Adelaide City Council area about who is sleeping rough on the city's streets and others staying in temporary accommodation.
"Everyone's story is different and that's why it's so important to put a name to the people experiencing homelessness," he said.
"Whilst we are facing a cost of living crisis, a housing affordability crisis, it is still possible to solve this problem of rough sleeping homelessness."
Mr Pearson said tackling homelessness goes beyond providing housing.
"It's about preventing people from falling into homelessness in the first place, and making sure when we do provide the housing, it comes with the support," he said.
Stan agrees, and said governments needed to provide further financial support to homelessness services so more people can access them.
"Maybe if the politicians got out of those big seats and come and spoke to some of us that actually live on the street or who have been there, maybe they just might get an idea."
