Alternative Media Group

Wayside Chapel faces safety crunch

Author:

Michael Gormly

Posted:

Thursday, 12 November 2009

The Wayside Chapel in Potts Point is facing its worst crisis ever. Its jumble of old buildings has deteriorated so badly that work safety issues have barred staff from whole floors and they have nowhere else to work.

Inside, the buildings are like a rabbit warren, cobbled together ad hoc since 1964. A whole theatre space was badly burned some years ago and now sits empty, charred and off limits with rain leaking through asbestos roofing. The room below it is a no-go area, its centre marked off with yellow tape. Only one staircase serves the upstairs offices, leaving no escape for staff during a fire.

Staff say water streams down some walls in heavy rain while lights crackle and spark.

“One small room above Orwell Lane leaked so badly bricks from its external wall started spitting into the laneway”, said Pastor Graham Long.

Maintenance work is losing the race against the decay.

Clients who need a shower can access them only via Orwell Lane, a locked steel gate and a narrow open-air path. Staff cannot supervise without leaving their area and also traipsing around the back of the building.

“People literally have to be in two places at once,” said Pastor Long.

Meanwhile fund raising for a brand new building in the centre of the site, and refurbishment of the existing building on the east of the site, has been hit by the Global Financial Crisis and remains about $3 million short of the $7 million needed. Pastor Long is confident the Chapel will be able to raise another $1 million, and has issued a last-ditch appeal for the remainder.

“Our future is really on the line,” he said. “I wrote to the Prime Minister to ask him to find $2 million, matching the gift that the NSW Government has already made. I’m frightened he won’t even see the letter and that I’ll get back a letter from a public servant that tells me that the world is full of great need and too bad.”

“You name the federal minister and I’ve been there. They all know the work we do and they love us, but tell us we don’t quite fit into their funding guidelines.”

The community would get a good return on the money, he says. Previous Kings Cross Police Commander Mark Murdoch agreed, commenting: “the demise of Wayside and the community support services and programs it provides would increase, quite significantly, the workload of the local police, particularly in terms of mental health intervention and crisis management, public order, noise, neighbour disputes and the public consumption of alcohol and other illicit substances.”

Pastor Long is appealing for people to convince federal politicians to lobby the Prime Minister.

“Can I ask you to ring or write to your own Federal Members and let them know that you don’t want The Wayside to go away?“ he said. ”You’d think with all the money that has been thrown around in recent times that $2 million wouldn’t be such a big ask but it has turned out to be impossible without the intervention of the Prime Minister.”

The new building is purpose designed, offering staff clear sightlines to all activity areas. It will hold a new theatre over two levels and a youth centre. The third floor will host programs for people with long-term mental health issues including life skills and cooking classes.

Wayside Ambassador, actor David Wenham sums it up:

“There are many reasons why a person might come to Wayside but there is usually one common theme that unites all cases; significant level of mental illness, something that affects one in six Australians. God willing, most people will have a strong support network. For those that don’t there’s The Wayside Chapel.”

by Michael Gormly

The Wayside’s burnt-out theatre