![SANCTUARY: Father Peter MacLeod-Miller, of St Matthew's Church, will not turn away homeless people when they need help. Picture: MARK JESSER SANCTUARY: Father Peter MacLeod-Miller, of St Matthew's Church, will not turn away homeless people when they need help. Picture: MARK JESSER](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/LwkzkiYFFun7N3tMSiAzVf/d0b2845d-fb59-4134-b17a-e7fad73b6762.jpg/r0_0_5103_3456_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
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FATHER Peter MacLeod-Miller always carries a sleeping bag in his car boot.
Whenever he passes the Albury train station or the river at night, he always seems to need it.
The Archdeacon of St Matthew’s Church is an advocate for the Border’s homeless and said he never turned anybody away – no matter their background.
“I think it’s very often the people who fall outside the paperwork, outside the hours of the services and outside the facilities,” he said.
Father MacLeod-Miller said homeless people did not have a voice and yet they faced a range of issues that needed to be spoken of.
“People with an intellectual disability, psychiatric problems and people who have used up all their chances find it difficult to access services,” he said.
“It’s young people, it’s older people and they only put their hands up for help when they are desperate.”
Father MacLeod-Miller said a homeless man approached him and said his friend was under a tree at the river, attempting to take shelter from pouring rain.
“They asked me to go down and help because this person did not want to ask themselves,” he said.
The outspoken community leader said homeless people lived in danger.
He said they were exhausted from sleeping with one eye open – terrified they might be attacked by a passer-by.
“One person who was homeless once came to the church and told me one of his friends was in emergency because he had been beaten up,” he said.
“It’s very dangerous sleeping out – the moment you fall asleep you could be robbed or killed.
“It does happen and homeless people are vulnerable and live in great danger.”
Father MacLeod-Miller said the homeless were “refugees” in the community.
“If people are concerned about refugees, we should be looking at the refugees in our own society,” he said.
The archdeacon has people knocking on his door every night.
Without fail he lets them in the church and feeds them or finds them a hotel room.
He works with Father Kevin Flanagan of North Albury's Sacred Heart Church and Reverend Christine Moimoi at St David's Uniting Church.
“People go to anything with a cross on it and they just hope to get some sort of help,” he said.
Among the daily desperation and despair, Father MacLeod-Miller somehow still has hope for the future of people on the streets.
But he said the community had to care enough to act.
“If we can’t deal with them nobody can and if we don't do it, who will?”