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Chapter Five: Breaking the cycle

Key points

To reduce homelessness, particularly the numbers of people sleeping rough, it is critical that services work to end homelessness for their clients permanently.

As well as providing a crisis response to people who are homeless – somewhere to sleep, something to eat, health care, legal protection, counselling – there must be a stronger focus on achieving durable outcomes.

For some people, homelessness is an isolated event – it happens once and for a short time. For others, homelessness is part of a chaotic and uncertain life of poverty and disadvantage. These people tend to move in and out of homelessness and when they do find housing it is not sustained.

An increase in the supply of affordable housing generally and specialist housing models that link accommodation and support should underpin our long-term response to homelessness.

At present, specialist homelessness services struggle to find longer-term accommodation for people they are supporting.

This means that people have to stay in specialist homelessness services for lengthy periods of time. In 2006-07 around 2,000 families with children were living in specialist homelessness services for more than six months.90 Ideally these families should be in a safe and secure place that they can call their own.

The inability of specialist homelessness services to move people into secure affordable housing also contributes to the high turn away rates from specialist homelessness services. On any given night, more than half of all people requesting new accommodation from specialist homelessness services are turned away.91 Many of these are young people and families.92

Lack of affordable housing also means that some people move from one specialist homelessness service to another or from a homelessness service back to the streets. Around one in six people enter specialist homelessness services from another homelessness service and one in seven exits into another homelessness service. Another 5 per cent of people leave specialist homelessness services to return to the streets.93

An increased supply of affordable housing and specialist housing models will enable specialist homelessness services to move people into secure, long-term accommodation. In turn, this will enable specialist homelessness services to assist larger numbers of people. A greater supply of affordable housing will also provide people who are vulnerable to homelessness with more housing choices, and contribute to reducing the numbers of people who become homeless.

Specialist housing is required to meet the needs of individual groups within the homeless population.

Foyer models provide young people who are homeless with stable accommodation and other supports on the basis that they continue to participate in education, training or employment.

Foyer models were developed in France to provide for young people moving from rural areas to the city to find work. As they developed, the focus was widened from purely employment to providing support on a range of issues faced by young people living away from home. The model has now spread through Europe and has also been established in the United States. These newer models are targeted primarily to young people experiencing homelessness.

Several Foyer models are operating in Australia. The Foyer Foundation has been established in South Australia to promote the model.

These models support young people who require ongoing support, guidance and mentoring as they may not have the life skills to live on their own. They provide young people with longer-term accommodation that is tied to education, training and employment.

For rough sleepers, assertive outreach models have been successfully trialled in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. These models involve working intensively with people sleeping rough, connecting them to sustainable long-term housing and health services.

Specialist homelessness services provide a vital safety net for people in crisis who have no other options. They also have a key role to play in ending homelessness by identifying people whose long-term prospects are poor without intensive assistance.

Specialist homelessness services need to be able to wrap services around their clients. This involves using their expertise to assess all of the clients’ needs, identifying the services required, brokering these services and coordinating their delivery.

Services should be able to provide differentiated levels of support to people who are homeless depending on their needs. Some clients will be able to move through specialist homelessness services into longer-term stable accommodation quickly and with limited support. Others will need longer, more intensive support to assist them to maintain their housing and participate in work and community activities. This means that services should be funded to work with clients for as long as they need active support to maintain housing, rather than be subject to time limits on the support they provide.

It is critical that people who are homeless receive support to maximise their opportunities to participate in the economy and the community. For many clients this will mean assisting them to get a job or begin training.  Stable housing and increased participation is the best way of ensuring that people remain on their feet and move out of homelessness permanently. Specialist homelessness services and employment services need to work closely together to improve employment outcomes for their clients.

Children who are homeless have particular needs that have to be addressed. The evidence suggests that negative early experiences increase the likelihood of mental health and behavioural problems later in life.94 Children who are homeless are particularly vulnerable to becoming homeless teenagers and then homeless adults. Attention needs to be paid to reducing the impact of early homelessness and preventing a lifelong cycle of homelessness and social exclusion. This is best done by minimising disruption in their lives, stabilising their housing quickly and keeping them in school.

Under the National Affordable Housing Agreement the Australian Government will work with states and territories  to increase the supply of affordable housing and deliver specialist accommodation for people who are homeless. These initiatives will help to move people from specialist homelessness services into long-term housing that meets their needs, ensuring they stay permanently housed.

Build 50,000 affordable rental homes for low and moderate income earners

Under the National Rental Affordability Scheme, the Australian Government is investing $623 million to increase the supply of affordable rental dwellings by up to 50,000 by 2012, with a further 50,000 houses to be made available after July 2012, if demand remains strong.

The Australian Government will provide tax credits or grants of $6,000 on 50,000 new rental properties each year for ten years.  State and territory governments have agreed to contribute a further $2,000 per property, either as cash or in kind each year for ten years.

Rent for these properties will be charged at 20 per cent below the market rate for eligible tenants on low to moderate incomes. Tenants will still be eligible for Rent Assistance – making the properties even more affordable.

Build up to 2,700 additional homes for people who have been homeless or at risk of homelessness  

Under A Place to Call Home the Australian Government is investing $150 million over five years to provide a pool of 600 additional houses for homeless individuals and families across Australia.

This initiative is being delivered in partnership with the states and territories who have agreed to provide support services to each household accommodated under the scheme to ensure the cycle of homelessness is stopped. Support services include tenancy support, financial counselling and debt management, drug and alcohol services, health, legal and child welfare services.

In Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia plans are under way to build new facilities for people who are chronically homeless as well as new homes for homeless families. South Australia is also developing a Foyer model facility to provide housing and support to young people who are homeless in Adelaide. Under A Place to Call Home, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland are delivering new homes for individuals and families who have been homeless.  

The Australian Government has allocated $400 million over two years commencing 2008-09 to increase the supply of social housing. Between 1,600 and 2,100 additional dwellings will be built by the states and territories by the end of 2009-10 with this funding. This initiative will be implemented through the National Partnership on Social Housing.

Implementation plans for this new housing will be finalised by 1 April 2009.  Governments have also agreed to consider further social housing reforms, supply shortfalls and possible payment of Commonwealth funding assistance through a per dwelling subsidy, such as Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

Specialist models of accommodation

Increasing the supply of affordable housing will assist in reducing homelessness. Some people who are homeless will benefit from specialist long-term accommodation models that easily allow for the integration of support and accommodation.

Specialist supported housing facilities in diverse communities should target:

Families should be provided with housing and support to either prevent the family from moving into specialist homelessness services or to leave specialist homelessness services for more sustainable housing. A range of support services will be provided as required to assist them to break the cycle of homelessness and get back on their feet. These could include education, training and employment, legal advice, financial counselling and management, mental health and substance abuse support, family/relationship counselling and social activities.

Older people experiencing homelessness have a different profile to that of other older Australians. They are more likely to have experienced mental illness or cognitive impairment, often as a result of alcohol and substance abuse.  Many have been homeless for many years. They may have more complex health and support needs and often do not have family support. To end their homelessness, they may need lifelong support.

Additional aged care accommodation specifically for older people who are homeless is required. Housing models such as that established by Wintringham in Victoria, have proven successful for older people. Wintringham is a not-for-profit welfare organisation working with older men and women who are homeless. Wintringham supplies its residents with long-term supported housing, with particular emphasis on the rights and dignity of residents.

To promote this successful model of housing for older people who are homeless, the Australian Government will amend the Aged Care Act 1997 to recognise older people who are homeless as a ‘special needs’ group. This will better allow the needs of older people who are homeless to be specifically taken into account during the annual allocation of new residential places and community care packages. It will also allow aged care providers who care for older people who are homeless easier access to targeted capital assistance grants.  

The Australian Government will also allocate aged care places and capital for at least one new specialist facility for ageing people who are homeless in an area of need in each of the next four years. Proposals must be of sufficient quality and meet the requirements under the annual Aged Care Approvals Round. 

The Australian Government will continue to fund the successful Assistance for Care and Housing for the Aged (ACHA), which helps to link older people who are homeless and those in insecure housing to care and accommodation.

The Australian Government will provide funding of $18.4 million over the next four years to enable existing providers to help more people obtain housing and community care services and for new providers to expand ACHA into new regions.

More supportive housing models, such as Foyer models, also need to be established to target young people who are homeless. As discussed above, these models provide supported accommodation that is connected to education, training and employment. Young people have access to accommodation while they develop longer-term skills to become independent.

Build up to 4,200 new houses and upgrade up to 4,800 existing houses in remote Indigenous communities

The Australian Government will provide an additional $1.9 billion over ten years to build 4,200 new houses and upgrade up to 4,800 existing houses in remote Indigenous communities under the National Partnership on Remote Indigenous Housing.  This will address significant overcrowding, homelessness, poor housing conditions and the severe housing shortage in remote Indigenous communities.

Indigenous people are over-represented in the homeless population and are more likely to cite overcrowding as a reason for seeking assistance from specialist homelessness services.
Improving housing conditions for remote Indigenous communities will provide a foundation for improvements in health, education and employment and will contribute towards closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage.

Provide additional assertive outreach programs to rough sleepers

Services targeting people sleeping rough in Australia are underdeveloped. People sleeping on the streets have complex needs. For many, homelessness has become an entrenched way of life. Highly targeted and specialised interventions, that are assertive, intensive and integrated, are needed for this group. Wrap-around or whole-of-person support improves long-term outcomes for these groups. Evidence clearly shows that the longer a client is supported, the better the outcome.95

New models successfully trialled in the United Kingdom and United States recognise that people sleeping rough are unlikely to actively seek help. These models have a strong focus on outreach – taking the support to the person. Service models that are most effective involve support workers directly approaching people who are homeless and connecting them to housing, health and other services.

This model has been successful overseas and has been trialled in South Australia. At any point in time the South Australian Street to Home program is working with more than 80 people. Data from the past two years show that more than 200 people sleeping rough in the Adelaide inner city have been housed long term. One-fifth of these people had been sleeping rough for between five and 15 years. The level of support required to sustain housing decreases after six to 12 months of continuous housing. More than 95 per cent of these tenancies have been successful.96

Under the National Partnership on Homelessness agreed between the Australian Government and states and territories, there will be an additional focus on reducing rough sleeping. This will require the introduction of assertive outreach programs to find rough sleepers and connect them to sustainable long-term housing and health services.

The incidence of rough sleeping appears to be increasing in rural and remote areas, with around 62 per cent of rough sleepers located in those areas. Service distribution will need to be looked at in the longer-term to ensure that isolated rough sleepers are also reached by these types of programs.

How this will work on the ground: Fred

Fred is in his late 40s and has a long-term alcohol and heroin dependency. He has been sleeping rough for four years. The outreach team has been getting to know Fred by visiting him in the park where he sleeps. Eventually, members of the outreach team were able to talk to him about moving off the streets. He agreed to attend a methadone program, and they linked him with a specialist methadone unit while beginning to search for accommodation. He had previously been approved for social housing but the approval had been suspended when the Housing Department could not contact him. At the same time as trying to find him housing, the team worked with him to assess his other needs.

The outreach service worked to find him accommodation, initially using a boarding house before the agency head-leased a property using brokerage funds to cover the bond and other associated costs. Direct rent deductions through Centrelink were organised to assist with budgeting. The outreach team transferred his ongoing assistance to the support team, who continued to work with him for nine months after he obtained housing. By then, Fred was still in the methadone program, had re-enrolled in TAFE and had phone contact with his daughter, who he had not spoken to for years. He had also been linked to a tennis group that included current and former rough sleepers. He is now working with the outreach team to support another rough sleeper to make the transition to sustainable housing.

Additional specialist support for homeless children

There is substantial and growing evidence of the impact of homelessness on children. The instability and chaotic nature of homelessness can have profound effects on a child’s physical health, psychological development and academic achievement.97 A critical impact on children is disrupted schooling, which in turn can increase the risk of homelessness in adulthood. Children who are homeless and those living with domestic and family violence are at greater risk of behavioural problems and poor developmental outcomes.98

Specialist homelessness services were not originally resourced with children in mind. Now there is an increasing awareness that children have needs, distinct from those of their parents. The links between specialist homelessness services and schools and child care services in Australia is poor.99 This is in contrast to the United States, where legislation requires schools to identify and address the needs of children who are homeless.

Homelessness services are often not able to provide specialist support for children.100 Not enough homelessness services employ specialist children’s workers.  Support for the 50,000 primary aged children in contact with specialist homelessness services each year needs to improve.   This means increasing specialist support for children who are homeless in order to break the cycle of inter-generational homelessness.

Under the National Partnership on Homelessness states and territories will provide additional specialist support to children who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.  This specialist support for children could include: 

How this will work on the ground: Stella and her daughter

Stella is an Indigenous woman who comes to a specialist homelessness service after leaving her violent partner. She has a daughter who is four years old.  After addressing her immediate legal needs and beginning work to find stable accommodation the service talks to Stella about sending her daughter to preschool. 

The service has a strong emphasis on the needs of children and works hard to link children with local child care centres and schools. The service has developed a partnership with an early intervention service, the local schools and several local preschools. The centre also runs a supported playgroup for local Indigenous mothers as well as in-house school readiness programs. It strongly encourages its clients to attend the supported playgroup. A speech pathologist also makes regular outreach visits to the service.

A worker talks to Stella about her options and the importance of getting her daughter ‘school ready’.  She helps Stella to find a suitable preschool that is right for her daughter. Workers from the service take Stella to drop her daughter off at the preschool each day.

Two weeks later Stella moves into stable housing in the local area. Stella’s daughter is able to continue attending the local pre-school.

 A national network of 90 Community Engagement Officers to provide outreach services to people who are homeless

Centrelink systems can work against people who are homeless. Proof of identity requirements, debt management and non-payment periods can make it difficult for people experiencing homelessness to get or maintain income support. Without the security of regular income, finding and maintaining housing is impossible. People who are homeless are difficult to contact and can fail to meet obligations if they do not have a stable address. Many people experiencing homelessness find going into a Centrelink office difficult, particularly if they are young, Indigenous, sleeping rough, have a mental illness or poor literacy skills.

The Australian Government, through Centrelink will put in place a national network of 90 Community Engagement Officers from July 2009 to ensure that disadvantaged and homeless clients have enhanced access to Centrelink services and address barriers to participation.

This expands and replaces the existing Community Contact Officer network, providing a national program to strengthen Centrelink’s engagement with clients who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This program will include out-servicing arrangements through community agencies that support disadvantaged, homeless and at risk customers such as rehabilitation centres, psychiatric hospitals, hostels, boarding houses, refuges, drop-in centres and organised meeting places.

Conduct pilots to co-locate state and territory housing services in Centrelink Customer Service Centres

In September 2008, Centrelink began trialling the co-location of an outposted staff member from Housing ACT in Centrelink’s Concept Office in Tuggeranong in the Australian Capital Territory. A key benefit of the co-location is that clients in crisis are better able to access a range of supports in the one place. For example, when a client experiencing a crisis as a result of domestic violence comes to see a Centrelink Customer Service Advisor, the advisor can refer the client immediately to the Housing Officer. Co-location means the client can get help with finding crisis accommodation as well as longer-term housing. A Centrelink social worker is also available to assist if required.

The service has been well received by clients who no longer need to travel as far to access services provided by Housing ACT.

The Australian Government, through Centrelink, will trial the co-location of state and territory housing services in other Centrelink Customer Service Centres to improve services to people who are homeless.

Boosting participation in the economy and community

For people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, finding a job or other opportunities to participate in the community is critical. For many, the first step to employment will be to re-engage with structured activities which are enjoyable and meaningful.  

To assist people who are homeless to participate in these kinds of activities, the Australian Government has provided $2.3 million to RecLink to deliver their sporting and cultural programs like the Choir of Hard Knocks across Australia. The funding will link up more than 200 community agencies to work with people who are homeless to enhance their participation.

New employment services, to commence on 1 July 2009, will provide the right mix of training, work experience and other interventions to help jobseekers, particularly disadvantaged jobseekers and people who are homeless, obtain suitable employment.

The new system actively encourages Employment Service Providers to forge close links and establish collaborative arrangements with organisations delivering homelessness services to provide a more integrated service to homeless jobseekers.  The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations will assist peak bodies in the homelessness and employment service sectors to develop a template agreement which can help providers to formalise their collaborative arrangements.

As part of the Government’s new employment service system, the Australian Government has committed $41 million to an Innovation Fund designed to address the needs of the most disadvantaged jobseekers, including people who are homeless.  Funding will be provided to projects which foster innovative solutions to overcome barriers to employment. Organisations will be selected to be part of the Innovation Fund Panel and invited to propose their ideas for new projects.

Improved legal services for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness

Legal issues and lack of access to legal advice can contribute to or increase homelessness. Many people experiencing homelessness have previously had some interaction with the legal system, either as a defendant or victim of violence in a criminal matter.101 There is often a direct causal link between a person’s homelessness and their legal problems.102 Common legal issues for people who are homeless include family law, Centrelink disputes, tenancy, credit and debts and employment.

A survey of the community sector found that one in five people seeking legal advice or help were being turned away.103 Current service provision data indicates that this means approximately 25,000 people each year are left unassisted and struggling with issues that are known triggers of homelessness.

There is a clear need to increase access to legal services to individuals and families at risk of homelessness – particularly legal services in the areas of family law, domestic and family violence, credit and debt and tenancy.

Under the National Partnership on Homelessness, extra Australian and state and territory government funding will allow the states and territories to expand legal services to clients at risk of homelessness with a focus on family law, domestic and family violence, credit and debt and tenancy.

Increasing voting and civic participation among people who are homeless

People who are homeless are often excluded from voting by logistical barriers and by a lack of understanding of Australia’s democratic process. Participating in elections and exercising voting rights is central to social inclusion.

The Australian Government is committed to reforming the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and bringing Australia's electoral system up to world's best practice. As part of this process, the Government is preparing two Green Papers on electoral reform.

The Australian Government will examine enrolment issues for people who are homeless in its second Green Paper on electoral reform to be released in 2009.

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, through its Inquiry into the 2007 Federal Election, has received submissions and heard evidence about the barriers for voters who are homeless and itinerant and will consider this issue in its report.

Where we will start:

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Chapter Six: Research

Chapter Four: Improving and Expanding Services to End Homelessness