It was late at night and teeming with rain, and Barry Wood and a friend were "getting soaking wet" in a tent they shared beside a road in northern New South Wales.
"A big blue van pulled up, and two burly blokes jumped out and scared the hell out of me," Mr Wood said.
The "burly blokes" were members of a homeless outreach team patrolling the streets of Tweed Heads.
"That moment changed my life," he said.
The former lifeguard had been "sleeping in the bush, trying to survive" for more than two years.
"You get run down by it, trying to scrape through every day," he said.
Homelessness took a toll on Mr Wood's health.
"I've got bad knees and a bad elbow, and I just couldn't get them fixed. I couldn't get my teeth fixed, so I couldn't eat properly," he said.
"My father committed suicide. I thought that might be the easy way out of it too."
Mr Wood is one of more than 100 people who have been housed in the Tweed under the NSW government's assertive outreach program.
The shire was already experiencing a post-COVID housing crisis when it was hit by flooding in February.
Calls for funding to be extended
While the funding has been extended for two years, Tweed Shire Council wants the outreach program to become a permanent service.
"We know that people can't deal with the situations that caused them to be homeless until they have the security of having a roof over their heads," Councillor Nola Firth said.
"Otherwise, they spend all their time thinking, ‘How do I stay safe? Where is my next meal coming from?'"
The program runs alongside other community services providers, such as Social Futures, a not-for-profit organisation whose caseworkers take to the streets several times a week to find potential clients.
"It is about meeting people, being respectful, polite, engaging with them,' chief executive Tony Davies said.
"It is about working with people to identify their own strengths and resources so that they regain their confidence to re-engage with other services and come back into the housing system."
Holistic approach key to success
Mr Wood said his caseworker helped him with practicalities like paying fines and going to the dentist.
The outreach team also organised activities including surfing, fishing, art classes and barbecues.
He said the connections he made with other vulnerable people through these made him feel part of the community and ultimately changed his life.
"It makes a big difference to your mental health because you have something to do, something to look forward to," Mr Wood said.
"It gets us together so that we are connecting, talking and helping each other out."
Mr Davies said 92 per cent of those housed had been able to sustain an ongoing tenancy.
"That's over 110 people who were sleeping rough, now in permanent accommodation.
"They are well on their way to taking control of their lives, getting back to work and being part of the community."
He said caseworkers' priority was to get people into temporary accommodation and the department worked quickly to house them longer term.
"Then caseworkers provide wraparound support, that essentially enables them to reset where they're at so that they can over the longer term maintain a stable tenancy," Mr Davies said.
For Barry Wood, it has been transformative.
"My little one-bedroom unit is fantastic," he said.
"I have a nice garden going. I've got a cat, and the grandchildren love it. I feel safe now."
