Chapter Two: The White Paper vision

  Key points

              Homelessness is everyone’s responsibility. To end  homelessness we need sustained long-term effort from all levels of government,  business, the not-for-profit sector and the community.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has adopted  headline goals of halving overall homelessness and offering  supported accommodation to all rough sleepers who need it by 2020. Interim targets  will measure progress towards these goals. 
The homelessness response needs tailored measures for  different groups such as children, older people, young people and Indigenous  people.
Homelessness  can often be prevented. Governments should invest in evidence-based prevention. 
When  homelessness does occur, mainstream services have a bigger role to play. 
The time people  spend in specialist homelessness services should be minimised. 
The process of  supporting people to obtain long-term housing and social and economic  participation in the community should start as early as possible. 
Increasing the  supply of affordable housing and supported accommodation will mean people can quickly  move out of crisis into stable housing. 
Future government effort and investment should occur in  three areas: 
Turning off the tap: services will intervene early to prevent homelessness.
Improving and expanding services: services will be more  connected and responsive to achieve sustainable housing, improve economic and  social participation and end homelessness for their clients.
Breaking the cycle: people  who become homeless will move quickly through the specialist homelessness  service system to stable housing with the support they need so that  homelessness does not recur.                      

Homelessness can happen to anyone. Despite the efforts of all governments over many years, the rates of homelessness remain unacceptably high.

The Australian Government’s vision is for a dramatic national reduction in the number of people who become homeless. When – despite best efforts – people do become homeless, specialist and mainstream services must be more responsive and help people who are homeless to find permanent accommodation and the support they need to stabilise their lives.

Homelessness is a problem for all Australians and reducing it is everyone’s responsibility. This issue cannot be tackled by governments alone. It will take a sustained and long-term effort to reduce homelessness. There must be additional forms of government assistance, services – mainstream and specialist – must aim to end homelessness for each of their clients, and businesses need to lend their expertise and resources. Working together, with national leadership and towards a common goal, homelessness can be prevented.

This White Paper sets out a national homelessness strategy that provides tailored measures for different people such as children, older people, young people and Indigenous people.

The national homelessness response outlined in this White Paper is built around three key strategies as a focus for government effort and investment over the next 12 years to 2020:

Turning off the tap

Half of the Australian Government’s new funding commitments over the next four years will be directed to the prevention of homelessness. Local initiatives have demonstrated that homelessness can be prevented. Significant effort should be focused on delivering evidence-based services across the country to stop people – especially children, families and young people – becoming homeless in the first place.

Improving and expanding services

While specialist homelessness services are an effective way to deliver crisis and ongoing support, they cannot deliver the entire response. Mainstream services need to improve their response to people who are homeless. When homelessness does occur, the time spent in specialist homelessness services should be minimised and transitions should be made to long-term stable housing, with ongoing support if necessary. Learning or earning, as well as participating in community activities, are crucial. Services that work with people who are homeless should focus on ending homelessness for their clients.

Breaking the cycle

Over the next four years, governments will break the cycle of homelessness by boosting specialist models of supported accommodation to keep people housed. An increase in the supply of affordable housing is crucial in order to permanently reduce homelessness. Some Australians who are homeless will get back on their feet quickly with targeted support. Others – particularly older people or those with mental health issues – will need long-term support. Boosting specialist models of supported accommodation will create exit points so that people can move out of crisis into stable housing quickly. So that they stay housed, some people who are homeless with complex needs will require wrap-around support involving a number of services.

A National Partnership approach

Efforts to tackle homelessness have always been shared by the Australian and state and territory governments. Since 1985 the primary response to homelessness has been through the jointly funded Supported Accommodation Assistance Program and the Crisis Accommodation Program. As Table 3 below shows, $2 billion over five years is invested by both levels of government in 1,500 specialist community based homelessness services that manage 8,000 units of accommodation for people who are homeless.

Table 3: Funding under the Crisis Accommodation Program (2003-04 to 2007-08) and Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (2005-06 to 2009-10)

	2003-04 $m	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	2009-10 $m	Total $m
CAP*	39.655	40.122	40.674	41.155	41.184			202.790
SAAP**			323.948	357.987	372.935	380.836	388.902	1824.608
								2027.398

* Funding under Commonwealth State Housing Agreement 2003-2008
** Funding under the Supported Accommodation Assistance V Agreement 2005-2010

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed to a major reform of this approach, with the creation of new National Partnerships on Social Housing, Remote Indigenous Housing and Homelessness within a new National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA).

The COAG reforms make it clear that the states and territories are responsible for the day-to-day delivery of services. This includes responsibility for specialist homelessness services as well as mainstream services such as hospitals and schools.

A person’s experience of homelessness is diverse: it will be different in inner city Melbourne, far north Queensland and central New South Wales. State and territory governments are more able to adapt programs to these local conditions.

The new approach under COAG has a number of critical features:

It institutes a new national approach to homelessness with tighter controls placed on the achievement of improved outcomes for homeless Australians and looser controls on inputs, allowing state and territory governments and community organisations who are closer to clients to specify the design of services that work.
The achievement of outcomes will not be narrowly confined, with a focus on improving delivery of services across government to prevent and respond to homelessness.
Through the National Affordable Housing Agreement there will be a greater focus on the achievement of long-term housing outcomes.

To support these reforms, COAG has committed to a 55 per cent increase on the current investment in homelessness as a down payment on the 12 year reform agenda. This represents an additional $800 million over four years from 1 July 2009 under the National Partnership on Homelessness.

The new National Affordable Housing Agreement gives a full picture of the efforts of the Australian and state and territory governments on housing and homelessness.

The Agreement provides $6.1 billion over five years from 2008-09 for measures including social housing, assistance to people in the private rental market, support and accommodation for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and for home purchase.

Under the Agreement, Australian and state and territory governments are investing:

an additional $632 million under the National Rental Affordability Scheme to provide incentives to organisations to build 50,000 new rental properties for rent to low income tenants at 20 per cent below market rent
an additional $300 million under A Place to Call Home to provide an ongoing pool of at least 600 homes over a five year period for individuals and families who are homeless
an additional $400 million to deliver more public and community housing for low income Australians, as well as specialist models of housing for people who are homeless under the National Partnership on Social Housing
an additional $1.9 billion over 10 years to boost the quality and supply of housing in remote Indigenous communities and address significant overcrowding, poor housing conditions and severe housing shortages under the National Partnership on Remote Indigenous Housing.

Detailed Implementation Plans for the National Partnerships on Social Housing, Homelessness and Remote Indigenous Housing must be developed between the Australian Government and each state and territory by 1 April 2009. The Australian Government intends for these Plans to be public documents and will seek COAG agreement to this approach.

Goals

The Australian Government, with the agreement of state and territory governments, has set two headline goals to guide our long term response to homelessness:

halve overall homelessness by 2020
offer supported accommodation to all rough sleepers who need it by 2020.

These goals are ambitious.

As an indication of the scale of effort required, reducing rough sleeping to 8,200 per night will involve an estimated reduction in rough sleeping of between 750 and 1,000 people each year for each of the five years to 2013.

These goals are achievable. In 1998, the UK Government set a goal of reducing the number of rough sleepers by two-thirds by 2002 and achieved it ahead of the target date.⁴⁹ In recent years Victoria⁵⁰ and South Australia⁵¹ have developed detailed strategies to reduce homelessness, and are demonstrating that coordinated whole-of-government effort can dramatically impact on homelessness. Although the South Australian strategy was only launched in 2004, it has already seen a 6.4 per cent reduction in rough sleeping in a period when rough sleeping grew nationally by 16 per cent.⁵²

The lessons from overseas and within Australia are clear: the achievement of these goals requires committed and sustained effort from all levels of government, business, the philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors and the Australian community.

The Australian Government understands that it must show national leadership and set the direction, identify measurable goals and commit substantial new funding. The Government must set a governance structure to drive its goals in cooperation with all its stakeholders. It must be accountable for its achievement.

Targets

The Australian and state and territory governments must be able to track progress towards the headline goals that have been agreed by setting short-term targets.

The Australian Government will set interim targets to 2013. These targets acknowledge that there may be modest increases in the rates of homelessness in the short-term before they begin to reduce. By 2013, the rate of homeless persons will need to be around 40 homeless persons per 10,000 population or better if we are to achieve our 2020 goal.

To achieve this, the key interim targets for 2013 are:

Overall homelessness is reduced by 20 per cent
Primary homelessness is reduced by 25 per cent
The proportion of people seeking specialist homelessness services more than three times in 12 months is reduced by 25 per cent

To track progress, the following interim targets for 2013 will be developed with the states and territories:

The number of people engaged in employment and/or education/training after presenting at specialist homelessness services is increased by 50 per cent
The number of people exiting care and custodial settings into homelessness is reduced by 25 per cent
The number of families who maintain or secure safe and sustainable housing following domestic or family violence is increased by 20 per cent
The number of people exiting from social housing and private rental to homelessness is reduced by 25 per cent
The number of young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with improved housing stability and engaged with family, school and work is increased by 25 per cent
The number of children who are homeless or at risk of homelessness provided with additional support and engaged in education is increased by 50 per cent
The number of families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness who receive financial advice, counselling and/or case management is increased by 25 per cent
The number of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness who receive legal services is increased by 25 per cent

The vision and goals of the White Paper span more than a decade. Changes to the drivers of homelessness and shifts in thinking about how best to respond are likely to occur over this time. To focus appropriate effort and track progress against the Australian Government’s 2020 goals, revised interim targets will need to be set over the life of the strategy. Interim targets may be reviewed over the course of the strategy.

Principles to guide our approach

The Australian Government is committed to using the framework of social inclusion to tackle disadvantage.

Social inclusion means building a fairer Australia by targeting the problems that keep people in disadvantage and tackling the barriers that prevent them from participating fully in Australian life.

In 2008-09, the Australian Government’s social inclusion priorities are:

Closing the Gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
tackling homelessness
increasing employment for people with disabilities and mental health conditions
assisting children at greatest risk of disadvantage
supporting jobless families.

The Australian Social Inclusion Board, chaired by Patricia Faulkner AO, provides advice on these priorities.

While our approach to homelessness needs to be flexible and responsive, there are specific principles that will guide the Australian Government’s homelessness response over the life of this strategy.

The strategy will also be underpinned by a strong legislative framework to ensure effort is maintained.

In implementing the White Paper vision, the Australian Government’s guiding principles are:

A national commitment, strong leadership and cooperation from all levels of government and from non-government and business sectors is needed. Homelessness must be seen as a shared responsibility.
Preventing homelessness is important. We need to understand the causes of homelessness and use this knowledge to stop people becoming homeless.
Social inclusion drives our efforts. Tackling homelessness is about more than shelter and support. The focus must be on building the capacity of people and communities to maximise everyone’s potential to participate economically and socially.
Clients need to be placed at the centre of service delivery and design. People who are homeless or at risk of homelessness need to be included in decision-making processes.
The safety and wellbeing of all clients is essential. Responses to homelessness need to focus on keeping people safe – including protecting women and their children who are escaping domestic and family violence, and people experiencing other forms of abuse. Special attention must be given to the unique needs of children at risk.
The rights and responsibilities of individuals and families need to be protected. Assistance should be balanced to reflect the social and economic objectives appropriate to age, capacity and aspirations.
Joined-up service delivery needs joined-up policy. An overarching policy framework is needed to guide all government approaches to addressing homelessness. Program funding and accountability boundaries must be changed to allow governments and funded organisations to take a multidisciplinary approach to addressing people’s needs.
Transition points are a priority. People are more vulnerable at times of change: becoming a parent, adolescence, school-to-work, retirement, family breakdown, leaving statutory care and leaving prison. These changes can be more difficult if compounded by poor health, mental health issues, caring responsibilities, bereavement, limited education and geographic or social isolation. Support at these points can prevent problems later on.
Evidence-based policy helps to shape our priorities for action. Strong evidence on outcomes should drive policy and program design. Achievements will be measured to assess the economic and social returns on investment. Action research is important as it helps improve policy and ensures that best practice and experience can be shared.
Targets are set to reduce homelessness and hold ourselves accountable. Rigorous and regular reporting against targets will ensure the Australian, state and territory and local governments and service providers are accountable.

Corporate and private sector partnerships

It will not be possible to meet the headline goals under this strategy without harnessing the efforts of the broader corporate and private sector.

Many charities complement government funding with donations from the corporate sector and philanthropic foundations. The private sector also contributes resources to reduce homelessness by donating buildings, running employment programs for people at risk of homelessness, volunteering and pro bono work, and via non-monetary contributions such as household goods and food for kitchens providing meals for people who are homeless. Local businesses contribute to the local and regional effort to reduce homelessness too.

The Australian Government acknowledges the generous efforts of the business and corporate sector to reduce homelessness. Some of Australia’s largest companies and institutions – like Westpac, Vodaphone, ANZ, Toll Holdings and Grocon – directly fund a variety of initiatives aimed specifically at reducing homelessness. These range from early intervention initiatives for children and families at risk of homelessness to building new specialist models of social housing for rough sleepers at cost, foregoing substantial profit.

A proposal to establish a foundation for building partnerships between government and the business sector to tackle homelessness was recommended at the 2020 Summit in April 2008.

To support the White Paper, the Australian Government will establish the Bea Miles Foundation to channel funding, in-kind support and sponsor innovation and research to support the work of governments and the not-for-profit sector in combating homelessness.

What will success look like?

To the Australian Government, success will mean fewer people become homeless. There will be a falling demand for specialist homelessness services, but those who do access them will be moved quickly to permanent accommodation with appropriate supports if necessary. Assertive outreach will draw in those who are sleeping rough to ensure they are housed and that they stay housed.

Through a wide range of measures over the life of this strategy, the underlying causes of homelessness will be dealt with. There will be less domestic violence, fewer children under care and protection orders and more children from disadvantaged families completing their education. Housing will be more affordable. Rates of homelessness for Indigenous Australians will fall to at least the levels in the general population and housing standards in remote communities will be closer to those of other Australians.

Throughout the human services system, homelessness prevention will be considered a priority for all clients. Mainstream agencies will prioritise people who are homeless and work closely with specialist homelessness services to end homelessness for their clients. A full range of services providing practical help to people who are homeless will be provided alongside innovative supported housing models targeted to those who need it.

The Government’s strategies will be evidence based, responsive to local conditions and needs, and adjusted as required to reflect changing social and economic conditions.

Homelessness will be considered unacceptable in Australia.

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