Dark corridors

Part 1: A sign is taped to the flaking wall of a Sydney boarding house. It reads: "Attention squatters: If I catch you in these rooms or this house I will rip you a new arsehole".

Towards the rear of the dilapidated two-storey building is the outside kitchen. The microwave plate is a petri dish of micro-organisms. The window is held together by a web of stained brown tape.

For social worker Joel De Freitas, from Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, scenes like this are as familiar as the fields where he coaches his daughters