The corps at the end of the world, where darkness has not overcome
The Hobart Citadel Corps assists more than 250 people experiencing homelessness every year. For Majors Johnmark and Nicole Snead, their job is to go home at the end of each day without guilt. Salvos Online journalist KIRRALEE NICOLLE reports
As a Salvation Army corps officer in Hobart, Tasmania, who regularly met with those experiencing homelessness, Major Nicole Snead noticed something odd.
As she spoke to people she met who were sleeping rough, she learned many of them weren’t originally from Tasmania. Instead, they came from other parts of the country. She couldn’t figure out why some would make the descent from a warmer climate, such as that of Queensland, to the streets of Hobart in winter.
“We see a lot of people who are sleeping rough, who don’t have a place to go, who randomly just arrive in Hobart with nothing,” she said. “Honestly, it is weird.”
When I ask Nicole why this is, she has few answers except that for those already in Tasmania, Hobart offers more services and options than anywhere else. And while it’s an interesting phenomenon, she clearly has more pressing concerns than figuring out exactly why people seem to migrate south to Hobart Salvos with nowhere to go. Her concern is who they each are and what they need.
“There is no child in kindergarten or early primary school who says, ‘I want to be homeless when I grow up’. Like, no one ever says that,” she says.
“I think for me, probably the biggest learning curve or the biggest understanding is that everybody has a story. And when you get to hear that story, it’s a privilege, and it’s actually a really special, sacred moment when there is safety and trust for them to open up.”
“We are very much about good news here, and we love to share good news because the world is not necessarily a good place for lots of different people, for lots of different reasons.”
She says some have faced relationship breakdowns or some other catastrophe that has led to losing their accommodation. She says with few personal supports and a cost-of-living and housing crisis, options for many were few.
“It is just a tragic byproduct of [all] that [which] affects so many different people,” she says.
But it isn’t all about doom and gloom for Nicole and Major Johnmark Snead, her husband and fellow Hobart Citadel Corps Officer.
“We are very much about good news here, and we love to share good news because the world is not necessarily a good place for lots of different people, for lots of different reasons,” she says. “As [leaders] in a faith community, we want to be countercultural to the world, and so we try to get people to look at the good that is happening in their life, whether that is that somebody’s smiled at them this morning, made eye contact with them, bought them a coffee. They’re coming to our site, and they’ve got shelter. They’ve got a place of peace to belong to.”
Nicole says that their practice of finding glimmers of joy amid pain has also made them a safe place to go when good things happen. When their clients receive accommodation or some other success, they come to The Salvation Army to share the wins with Nicole and Johnmark.
“We’re showing them that we’re not like secular places,” she says. “We are different. We [share] the love of Jesus.”
“It doesn’t diminish or dismiss the really hard stuff that they’re going through. If we can be just their little beacon of light – if we can be that tiny little bit of hope – then we’ve done our job.”
The hope Hobart Salvos offers is not only emotional but also very tangible, and the broader community is noticing.
Backpacks and bags of hope
Recently, Tasmanian power company TasNetworks donated $10,000 to Backpack Bed for Homeless, an organisation that provides an ergonomic backpack that contains an all-weather shelter, mattress, emergency blanket and mosquito mesh cover. The backpack also has lockable pockets for protecting valuables. The Hobart Salvation Army received 20 of these, which it has been giving to those in need.
Additionally, in 2023, TasNetworks gave Nicole and Johnmark’s team a $8000 community grant to fund ongoing Sunday night dinners for anyone needing a meal.
Last Christmas, Hobart Salvation Army also delivered 65 Bags of Hope containing Christmas food to community members facing a difficult festive season.
On Census night in 2021, Tasmania was second only to Western Australia, with 10 per cent of those experiencing homelessness sleeping in improvised dwellings, tents or sleeping out. In winter, strong Antarctic winds whip through Hobart, bringing temperatures down to just a few degrees above freezing.
For Nicole, the best and hardest parts of her job are both found in her work with those experiencing homelessness.
“Quite often, when we have [school] classes in [to learn about The Salvation Army’s work], sometimes they ask, ‘What’s the best bit about your job?’” she says. “I say ‘When people share good news with you’ because it is. But they also ask, ‘What’s the hardest bit about your job?’ I say when I know that there are people sleeping underneath my building every night, and yet I get to go home. That’s really hard to witness time and time again.”
Nicole says that when she feels overwhelmed, she reminds herself that she has done all she can and that her home is now where she needs to be.
“I can’t fix some of that systemic stuff. I can’t fix some of the macro government stuff, but I can give people a place of belonging. I can give them something to wear. I can provide a shower and a laundry, you know, so that they can actually feel like they are a person of worth and dignity.
“And [I can] give them choice. We’re really strong on that.”
