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

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.

Recent sub-zero temperatures have left everything wet and dank, and have made sleep elusive.

"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.

'Wicked problem'

On the NSW Mid North Coast, north of Forster, 52-year-old transgender woman Misty Rose Shepherd is living with her therapy cats in a makeshift bush camp.

This winter she said has been too damp to get a fire started, leaving her with no option but to rug up in her cold and wet tent on pillows covered in black mould.

"One of my biggest worries is breathing wet air all night, I've already got a chest infection. I don't want to get some sort of bronchitis or pneumonia," she said.

The Forster Neighbourhood Centre provides support to Ms Shepherd and other rough sleepers in the area.

Manager Corinne Stephenson said a "massive housing shortage" was a big issue and a widespread effort was needed to fix the "wicked problem".

"We need developers, we need councils, we need governments, to work together, not on affordable housing, on social housing," she said.

"The way affordable housing is calculated is not actually affordable for the majority of us; that's a bandaid approach."

In a statement to the ABC, Minister for Homelessness Rose Jackson said the NSW government was providing more homes for rough sleepers as a priority.

She said $5.1 billion had been allocated in the state budget to create 8,400 new social homes across the state.

"This is just the start, not the solution. No single government or organisation can tackle this challenge on their own," she said.

Vulnerable in the 'wild'

Ms Shepherd said she moved to the coast following a mental health crisis, and had been rough sleeping for six months.

She has been told it could be years before she can secure permanent social housing.

"I've been put on the priority housing list, which is anywhere [up] to a two-year wait."

While she waits, she said, she feels vulnerable living alone in the "wild".

"It's a constant fight, with trying not to be found," she said.

"Here I am just left to fend for myself. I get worried if I hear a car coming up the track … I've had to go 'boy' mode, where I've had to go back to acting like a man."