Missionbeat gets pedalling

A new kind of bikie is speeding through the city’s backstreets. Dressed in lycra, not leather, they’re on a mission to help Sydney’s homeless.

Mission Australia recently launched their Missionbeat bike service to infiltrate the city’s nooks and crannies where rough sleepers often suffer indiscovered.

Equipped with a first aid kit, the bike service is designed to seek out new clients and radio in transport, medical or other services if needed.

“You can get around the city a lot more quickly,” said Leonie Green, Mission Australia State Director for NSW.

“It also means you can get into places that a van couldn’t necessarily get to. We’ve been able to go places we haven’t been able to before.”

Ms Green said the bike service also helps in building relationships with clients:  “With some of the clients that we work with in our outreach services such as Missionbeat, it can take five or six months before you can actually start building a relationship with people.

“They may have mental health issues, they could be very distrusting of authority. So you really want to have an environment that’s non-threatening and allows that relationship to build over time.”

The service has been running for three weeks and Missionbeat Service Manager Daniel Petsalis, also one of the riders, said they were already seeing marked results.

“We’re able to have contact with more people than we’ve had in the past,” he said.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore officially helped launch the service on World Environment Day, last Friday.

Ms Green said Mission Australia hoped to be equipped with two more bikes for the Missionbeat service by this time next year.

The last street count conducted by the City of Sydney revealed there were 791 homeless people in the Sydney City local government area.