The news around Muswellbrook is not good Ms Little said, with a desperate shortage of housing for women with children and, surprisingly, for single men.

Lenore Little said the goal of her organisation is to work with people to sustain tenancies, and to help those in the region who are at risk of homelessness or who are homeless.

“We also have a short-term emergency accommodation for homeless women and for women and children who have escaped domestic violence.

“We do outreach in the Upper Hunter and we’re in Muswellbrook five days a week,” she said.

Lenore Little said there are seven transitional properties in Muswellbrook that are used by women and children escaping domestic violence, or women with families.

She said these families can stay there for up to 12 months under certain conditions.

Ms Little said the service, unfortunately, is “flat out every week.”

“We have people dropping in usually every day and I can’t tell you how many phone calls we get.

“Sometimes we are running around, for want of a better term, like chooks with no head.

Ms Little, a Queenslander who’s worked previously as a family therapist with Aboriginal communities at Cape York, said there are many reasons why people become homeless.

“Sometimes there is drug use involved, relationship breakdowns, depression, other mental illnesses and so forth.

“For example a few weeks ago we had a woman whose relationship had broken down and she ended up leaving everything behind, couldn’t cope and became depressed and as a result became homeless,” Ms Little said.

Upper Hunter Homeless Support also works with men.

“We also have men who have escaped domestic violence.

“Something that is a real issue for us is we don’t have very much accommodation for male youth or for single men.

“We’re usually forced to accommodate them in hotels or caravan parks until we can get them some kind of other support because we do have a lot of single men who are currently homeless,” Ms Little said.

Lenore Little said when the organisation gets small donations they are put to good use.

“Journaling is a really good way to start getting things out for people who have come from a struggle.

“They can keep that for themselves or share it with a counsellor or talk to a case worker to maybe start identifying things we can assist them with.

“Also little pamper packs for males with shaving cream or personal items for the ladies.

“If you get a homeless woman who comes into the refuge needing alternative accommodation for the night well they don’t have things like shampoos, toothbrushes and those things,” Ms Little added.

Last week the NSW Minister for Social Housing, Brad Hazzard, announced the sale of heritage housing at Sydney’s Millers Point will raise more than $100 million.

He said the proceeds from that sale will be put directly into funding hundreds of new homes across the state to help vulnerable people.

“Yes, we’ll be on to that straight away and filling out an application because we need boarding houses for males and transitional properties in Muswellbrook so these people in trouble can build towards their future,” Ms Little concluded.