"Since the pandemic, it has gotten worse."
It's a startling assessment from a woman who has spent the past 20 years supporting Melbourne's homeless.
Catherine Hill – who works for the Salvation Army Crisis Centre and Sacred Heart Mission – said for two years "we were like Booking.com".
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"People who had been street homeless had the luxury of a hotel room where you get your own bathroom and toilet," Hill said.
"Since the pandemic… a lot of people have gone back to the street, they've had to."
"The loss of dignity, the loss of capacity to contribute to society when you are homeless, unless you have housing – you can't do anything."
It's a struggle Hill has been battling to bring to the big screen for five years.
Between shifts as a case manager and social worker, she has spent her time writing, producing and directing the independent feature film, Some Happy Day.
"It was the only way to get a film up. You've got to do it yourself," said Hill who returned to work to raise money to edit the film she shot in 2017.
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"We were ready to go just before COVID and then it was like, 'oh, what's happened?'"
"We only went to two or three distributors, but I knew there wasn't any traction and then I went, we've got to do this."
"It has really made me invest in the story and know why I did it in the first place, and why it's so important to get it out there, because the story is reflecting society back."
"If we aren't reflecting all of society, then we're not seeing that true mirror."
"It's in seeing ourselves reflected back, that we can then go, 'oh goodness, we need to change and we need to do something.'"
Some Happy Day follows Tina, a homeless woman whose search for a better life becomes entwined with the trouble of a social worker named Frances.
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"I remember thinking, wow, that's such an extraordinary dichotomy," said Hill.
"(As a social worker) you've got the perception and the compassion to help people coming in, and you do it so brilliantly, but you don't have the capacity to do that with your own life."
And while some of twists and turns in the movie can seem unbelievable to those removed from that world, Hill said everything in her script is based on real stories.
"I was working with a woman who had her car keys in one of her drawers," she said.
"She went out to get some food vouchers for a guy, came back and about an hour later she said, 'I'm just gonna go and move my car'.
"She realised that her car had been stolen because the keys had gone."
"We rang the hotel where we booked this gentleman in (to stay) and he hadn't turned up."
"You just go 'oh, bloody hell.' That was no good."
Adding to the realism, lead actor Peta Brady – who plays the homeless Tina – has worked in the needle exchange next to Hill's work for years.
"Her performance is so spot on because she knows this world so well," Hill said.
"When I said to her I was going to write, she read every single draft… She gave me fantastic feedback."
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"There's a lot of people who have lived experience of homelessness in our film, even though they're not playing people who are homeless."
"No one worked for a cent."
"They were all just doing this to tell the story and to be part of the production and I'm still eternally grateful for everyone who came on board."
That includes the Salvation Army's Crisis Centre – where many of the film's scenes were shot.
"We had to shoot it at like three in the morning because the crisis centre doesn't shut its doors until 11 at night," Hill said.
"It was so lovely for them to see their story on a big screen and I was just so excited."
"I really wanted to provide an authentic story of the people that I have worked with… these incredibly resilient people who, against all odds, still maintain hope and still have goals that they're striving to achieve and facing immense obstacles."
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In April, Anglicare released its national Rental Affordability Snapshot; comparing more than 45,000 rental listings against he incomes of Australians on benefits like JobSeeker.
"There were seven properties throughout Australia that they could afford," Hill said.
Housing is considered affordable if it costs 30 per cent or less of a person's income.
"I'm dealing with people who – if they ring me at night and they've got a car – I have to say to them, 'I'm really sorry, you've got shelter'," Hill said.
"I know people who are using their JobSeeker or their pensions to hire Ubers – which are more expensive – or rental cars so that they can work during the day and at night they can sleep in that car."
"The inventiveness of people and the resilience in order to survive is absolutely incredible."
Without a major distributor on board, Hill is licencing Some Happy Day for as little as $50 to help with community fundraising.
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She's hoping it inspires state and federal governments to invest more social housing and support.
"By 2050, it will be costing us $25-billion a year if we don't address housing now," Hill said, referencing a reporter from Housing All Australians.
"f we did address it, it would save us $110 billion dollars over that time."
"It's just extraordinary. The economics are black and white."
You can find more details about the film at somehappydayfilm.com
