What's the temperature where you are???

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Monday 1st of July 9.51a.m. patchy grey cloud / strong sunny gaps. Gentle 16.7 / 25.9kph WSW, Hg 45%, 12.2C / 54.5F top of 14C / 57F 🫨 Showers developing. Marine wind warning. I'll take the saunas, thanks.

Moon is 27.2%

Homelessness in bitter winter means mouldy, damp and wet conditions for rough sleepers​

20 hours ago​

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Shane Sweeney, a shearer for 30 years, says he never imagined he could become homeless. (ABC Riverina: Conor Burke)

Shane Sweeney wakes up most mornings in damp bed sheets after a night of rough sleeping on the frosty banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga.

The former shearer, who turns 50 this year, sleeps in a makeshift home made from blue tarps and gazebos.

"I tend to wake up two or three times or more … everything's moist, and your body reacts, you're just too cold to sleep," he said.

Parts of Australia are recording their coldest temperatures in more than a decade — with spells of rain and icy weather expected to continue this week — and people sleeping rough are bearing the brunt.

Mr Sweeney said he has struggled this winter to stay warm.

"By five, six o'clock at night, your bedding sheets ... are absorbing the moisture, so you're climbing into a half damp, cold, wet bed," he said.

A marriage break-up and mental health issues led to him losing his home, he said.

That was followed by a stint in jail, he said, for breaching an apprehended violence order and resisting an officer, for which he was convicted and sentenced to a six-month community corrections order.

He has been homeless for two years and never imagined he would end up in this situation.

"There's no answers, you don't know where you're going next, what to do next," he said.

"Is there an end to it, do I keep pushing, what am I pushing for? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for people like me?

"At the moment I can't see a solution."

The state government released its 2024 street count in May, which showed 2,037 people were sleeping rough across New South Wales — a 26 per cent increase over the past year.
 

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