Telethon: St Pat’s launches family support program to help house those who need it most

Every mother wants the very best for their child. For Tallulah, being unable to give her son the security she knew he deserved was a heavy weight to carry.

For years, her life has been defined by homelessness and uncertainty — a cycle of temporary beds, borrowed spaces and the constant pressure of not knowing where she and her little boy would sleep next.

Tallulah had been voluntarily living in a van before her son was born. After his arrival, things got more unstable.

“I had him and then I was just jumping around, couch surfing, in share houses, staying with family,” she says.

“I always felt like a burden on whoever I stayed with, especially having a baby or toddler, like there’s so much guilt that comes with that.

“It was never my house, so I didn’t have control over what other people’s lifestyles were or who was coming and going.”

The impact it was having on her three-year-old son was profound, a fact the 32-year-old only learned after St Pat’s was able to provide the pair a home through its newly launched family support program, backed by Telethon.

They moved in just seven weeks ago but already Tallulah can see huge changes in her son, who previously rarely spoke.

“I didn’t even really realise how anxious he was,” she says. “I thought he was just a really timid child who needed to be with me constantly, I thought that was his personality.

“But now I realise that as soon as he feels like he’s safe and there’s not people coming and going that he doesn’t know, he’s like, happy to play and sing and play imaginary games.”

And he has finally found his voice.

“His talking has really burst open,” Tallulah says.

Before finding support, Tallulah says she felt trapped in her situation.

“I was kind of stuck in a loop,” she says. “I definitely struggled with anxiety and, I wouldn’t say depression but a lot of sadness.”

Faced with nowhere left to turn, she approached St Pat’s for help.

“I was renting a room in a share house and then we got two weeks notice, and I had exhausted other options,” she says.

“I rocked up at St Pat’s in a fluster, like, ‘please help, I don’t know what to do’. They made it possible (to get her own home), whereas it just wasn’t possible before.”

Now Tallulah and her son are enjoying the simple pleasures of having their own space and even looking ahead to the future.

“It’s amazing to be able to be in the kitchen making a meal, and he can be in another room, which is the first time that’s happened, really, in his whole life,” she says.

“Now we can finally create our own life and I can start thinking about schools. Before it was like I don’t know where I’m going to be. I don’t want to muddle up his life by changing his schools around, but now I can start to plan.”

While Tallulah works on being the best version of a mum she can, her son is learning what security feels like, which has enabled him to “just be a kid” for the first time.

St Pat’s, now a beneficiary of Telethon, launched its family support program in response to a growing and increasingly visible homeless crisis across WA.

The initiative focuses on supporting families, children and young people experiencing homelessness — a demographic service providers say is rising.

St Pat’s support services manager Leigh Harland says the increase has been drastic.

“Our outreach team was going out and seeing more and more families,” she says.

“Three or four years ago, it was very unusual to see families sleeping rough or in such uncertain circumstances.”

Tallulah says homelessness is something that can happen quickly.

“You don’t think it could ever happen to you, I think that’s the funny thing,” she says.

“(When you are homeless) you look like a normal person, you’re going to playgroup, or whatever, it’s just that you’re not sure where you’re going after.”