At one of the oldest and last high-density housing complexes in the city, organisations band together to help its residents.

Canberra-based Reclink Australia project manager Mark Ransome said if it wasn’t for this assistance, many of the residents would be homeless.

Kanangra Court is in the heart of Ainslie Avenue in Reid.

“Most of the residents here, if they weren’t a resident here, there’s only probably one other location they could find to live here in Canberra,” Mr Ransome told CD.

“Which would be up at the village (Ainslie Village and Lodge) up the top here.

“If you can’t get residency here, you’re homeless.

“So, we look after residents that are here. But we had a lot of itinerant people who wander through, they know I’ve been here for a long time, and they know we’ll help them as best we can with what we’ve got.”

He said the organisation aimed to take a proactive approach in caring for the residents.

“It’s about trying to link people into healthier lifestyles if we can,” Mr Ransome said.

He said it’s also about harm minimisation, including an on-site needle and syringe program.

Directions Health Services’ Needle and Syringe Program aims to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV and other blood-borne diseases.

Mr Ransome said those who worked at Kanangra were not there to “judge people”, but rather to “help them as best we can”.

He said it was hard to determine how many people lived at Kanangra, with Reclink also having a presence in Reid, Braddon and Jerilderie Courts.

“So we do here two days a week with coffee or a bottle of water, and then we look after the residents at Braddon Court on Wednesdays, Reid Court on Thursdays and Jerilderie Court on Fridays,” he said.

Reclink, along with other organisations, also assist the residents by providing them with clothing and medical aid. Once a week, a mobile laundry service, Orange Sky, is on-site to give residents the opportunity to wash their clothes for free.

Mr Ransome has saved 18 people out of 23 who have overdosed in about the last 13 years he has worked at the site.

“The first few years it took a long time to earn trust and respect,” he said.

“But once they know they can trust you, that’s when they call you.”

He said earning that trust allowed the Reclink workers to have a “seriously positive impact on people’s lives”.

He said this included taking up a sport – one resident who started with the site’s gym program now loves to go snowboarding – while others turn to education or employment.

Mr Ransome said Reclink was funded through the Department of Justice and Community Safety in an attempt to decrease property damage and assaults, among other things.

“We’ve proven that we are effective,” he said.

“There was a study done on this as a service by the Australian Institute for Criminology and it proved conclusively that we do make a positive difference when it comes to justice outcomes.

“But a huge range of other outcomes as well, which were mental health, physical health, connection within community, connections to services that you might need, so yeah, it’s been proven, which is good and that’s independent too.”

Residents can gather with others in an area between the apartment blocks where there is a shared table tennis table and a vegetable and fruit garden.

“As a result of that, we produced 40-50 kilograms worth of salad last year,” he said.

“So you can come and pick it and make a salad, which is another healthy choice for people.

“That’s super popular, the residents love it.  And cherry tomatoes especially, they treat them like they’re lollies.”

No safe injecting sites in Canberra

Needle and Syringe Programs’ Tammy Waters and Directions Health’s Sirpa Kauhanen support residents on-site in many ways — providing clean injecting equipment and distributing donations such as clothes and blankets. The needle program operates on-site once a week.

“It’s harm minimisation. So, supplying and we always have a look around to make sure there’s no discarded needles and things hanging around,” she said.

“We clean them (the needles) all up when we’re here.”

Ms Waters said they had been campaigning for a safe injecting room for years.

“It would make a big difference, especially now there’s been a lot of overdoses because of the strength of the drugs that are around,” she said.