Long lines of homeless people standing two metres apart snake down a suburban street in Darwin. It is just after 7:00am and it is already 30 degrees Celsius. The street is packed.

There is just one gate open — marked with yellow tape to enforce social distancing — at the St Vincent de Paul homelessness shelter.

A volunteer pumps hand sanitiser into the palms of each person as they get to the front.

The queue later grows to include international students, workers who have just lost jobs, and families with young children.

"Normally we have 100 people coming through that door. Now half of those are new. We've never seen anything like this," Fran Avon, the CEO of St Vincent de Paul in the NT, says.

"Some of my staff have been crying. They are heartbroken, they feel for these people."

This Darwin homeless shelter in Darwin is seeing 100 people a morning for breakfast. Half of those people are not "regulars". ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Dona Wright, who works at the centre, is cooking sausages in the intense heat and humidity.

"I've worked here for nearly three years, but it's as if the world has been turned upside down in the space of two weeks," she says.

"People are coming through the door who are very hungry. Some students haven't eaten in three days."

"The other day, I was cooking meals for a family with toddlers. It was clearly the first time they had ever come to us for a meal. It is really hitting home."

Dona Wright said hearing stories from people experiencing hardship during the pandemic was heartbreaking. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Manik and Nischal do not know where their home will be by the end of this week.

They are from Nepal and have been studying in Darwin for three years.

"We lost our jobs a few weeks ago. We are down to our last savings," Manik, 25, says.

"There was a floor before. We worked and paid living expenses. But it feels like we have nothing to stand on now. I'm struggling with depression."

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With only enough money for one week, Manik is worried. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Manik is here with his flatmate Nischal to get a meal and apply for emergency relief money to pay their landlord.

"At my home there are five people who have jobs but three are without work now," he says. "We're all students."

They support Prime Minister Scott Morrison's call for international students to "go home" amid the coronavirus pandemic, but they simply can't afford the ticket.

"We want to go back home, but fear we could infect our families if we catch the virus travelling home," Manik says.

"We also don't have enough money to get back. Flights are thousands of dollars."

Nischal said his greatest concern was catching the virus and infecting his parents if he was sent home to Nepal. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

'I miss her so much'

Coronavirus has hit the volunteers too.

Drishtant Banskoto, 27, got married last month to his wife Ruby, but she is stuck in Nepal.

"We were supposed to have our honeymoon, but now she is stuck there. I miss her so much. It's been very hard," he says.

Volunteer Drishtant was married a month ago, but his wife is in Nepal so he can't see her. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

"But I keep coming here to help distract my mind from it. I need to be doing something, helping people helps me too," he says.

Many of his friends, he says, are now out of work and he is making some meals for them.

"They are everyday people," he says. "They had jobs, families. "Now I'm making their meal. The whole situation is crazy."

Volunteers prepare food for those in need. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Homeless at 'huge risk'

Tracey Thompson is walking the streets of Darwin's CBD early each morning, tracking down and talking to homeless people, handing them flyers with information about coronavirus.

"We need to educate people, because this virus could destroy communities," she says, walking rapidly.

Tracey Thompson from Danila Dilba hands a coronavirus information pamphlet to Carl and Wilhelmina in Darwin. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Tracey works for Darwin's Aboriginal-controlled health service, Danila Dilba, and is part of a team dedicated to educating the city's homeless about the risks of contagion and the need for social distancing.

"My greatest fear is this virus could absolutely devastate Aboriginal people," she says.

"When I speak to them they are scared, but they also don't know about the social-distancing stuff."

Thompson says many homeless Aboriginal people are aware of coronavirus, but do not fully realise the threat it poses.

"People don't have access to a TV or the radio, so that's why we are getting out there with pamphlets with helpful information on what they can practically do to stay as safe as possible," she says.

The fear of catching coronavirus is shared by Carl and Wilhelmina Papajana, who are sleeping rough on Darwin's streets but just want to get back to the Tiwi Islands.

Carl, 58, and Wilhelmina Papajana, 38, are sleeping rough in Darwin and want to get home to the Tiwi Islands. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Hundreds of Aboriginal people were safely transported home to remote communities after the Northern Territory Government offered free travel through the local Aboriginal Corporation, the Larrakia Nation.

But those with complex health conditions, like Carl and Wilhelmina, weren't eligible, while others with drug addictions and mental health issues slipped through the cracks.

"All I want to do is go home," Wilhelmina says. "I am very worried. I miss my home."

Tracey Thompson says her greatest fear is coronavirus "devastating" Aboriginal communities. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Danila Dilba's CEO Olga Havnen says there are perhaps as many as 300 homeless Aboriginal people in the area who have so far been largely forgotten in official planning for the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have done a lot of pandemic planning, getting people out of the offices to keep people safe," she says.

"But this is one group of people who have been overlooked."

The Danila Dilba organisation is handing out flyers with information about coronavirus to homeless people in Darwin. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Olga says the Government and the NGO sector need to roll out enough safe accommodation for the city's homeless to help avoid a public health disaster.

"There's an amazing level of public risk here," she says.

"We're told about social distancing and yet here we have vulnerable people on the street who we are oblivious."

Demand for frontline homelessness services has surged in the last two weeks in Darwin. ( ABC News: Henry Zwartz )

Meanwhile, the prospect of becoming homeless, or worse still, sick with the coronavirus, is keeping Nischal from sleeping.

"My greatest fear is sleeping in the street or catching coronavirus," he says. "I'm borrowing money from friends. Things are so hard.

"If I go back and infect my family I couldn't live with myself.

"If I can get food I can survive. My friends are sleeping on the street. Maybe I will have to do this too.

"Who knows what tomorrow will bring?"