To break the cycle of homelessness, we must match housing with specialist support so that people who were homeless are housed and stay housed.
Rev Keith Garner, CEO Wesley Mission
'... it usually takes two to three years for the benefit of new initiatives to clearly show, but we detect a sense of fresh motivation and anticipation amongst inner-city homeless services.'
More homes for people at risk of homelessness
Increasing the amount of affordable rental housing is critical to reducing homelessness.
Over the next four years the Australian Government will provide the largest ever single boost to the supply of social and affordable housing through our housing programs including the National Rental Affordability Scheme, the National Partnership Agreement on Social Housing, the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing, A Place to Call Home and the Social Housing Initiative, part of the Nation Building and Economic Stimulus Plan (NBESP).
These programs combined will add 80,000 new houses to the stock of affordable housing across the country by 2012.
The $5.6 billion under the Social Housing Initiative will build more than 19,300 homes and repair and upgrade a further 70,000 existing social housing dwellings (including 10,000 in very poor condition which have been returned to active use).
Over the last 12 months our housing programs have:
- approved repairs on over 70,000 homes, 55,000 of these are completed;
- allocated incentives to build 10,000 new affordable rental homes, of which over 1000 are built and tenanted, to be rented to low and moderate income households at 20 per cent below market rent.
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This table shows the total number of new homes to be built in each state and territory under the Social Housing Initiative.
Project Breakdown
| States |
Amount |
| NSW |
6'300 |
| VIC |
4,506 |
| QLD |
4,038 |
| WA |
2,045 |
| SA |
1,360 |
| TAS |
512 |
| ACT |
352 |
| NT |
208 |
At least 50 per cent of these new homes will be offered specifically to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The remaining homes will be targeted towards other high needs applicants on public housing waiting lists including the elderly, people with a disability and Indigenous Australians, many of whom will also be at risk of homelessness.
Chart 1: Social Housing Initiative Target Groups
Notes:
1. Some Social Housing Initiative Dwellings are multi targeted and may be counted against more than one target group. For example many homeless women and children are escaping domestic and family violence
2. As many Social Housing Initiative dwellings will be multi targeted, the number of dwellings targeted to Homeless Persons, for example, may increase.
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Locations of new social housing homes being built nationally as at September 2009.
All States and Territories are actively using the various housing programs to increase and improve their social housing stock. The following case studies demonstrate the range of innovative housing programs underway across Australia.
Case Study - A Place to Call Home an example from Queensland
Eva* is a single mother with four children who was previously living in a caravan on a rural property without access to basic facilities, including bathing amenities.
Twelve months ago, Eva and her kids moved into a new home built under the A Place To Call Home initiative. Since moving in, Eva has had a very successful tenancy and has started her own business. Eva's children are also doing well - her 17 year old son works with her in the business and her 15 year old daughter has obtained a school-based traineeship. For Eva's family, A Place to Call Home means long-term permanent housing and a safe environment for the children.
Eva says, 'the support I have received has been unreal by everyone involved. It is not just the house; it's also the emotional support I have received which has been amazing.'
*not her real name
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Case Study - National Rental Affordability Scheme, Adelaide Benevolent Society
Adelaide Benevolent Society (ABS) was allocated 33 National Rental Incentives under Round One of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). It currently has 18 dwellings available for rent or tenanted, with an additional 5 dwellings due to be completed in January 2010.
This year ABS has assisted a number of homeless people into accommodation supported by the NRAS, including:
- A young man who was 'couch hopping' with friends and had no stable accommodation. Now that he has a regular home he has completed work experience and is preparing to enter the workforce.
- A man in his thirties with a long history of mental illness who had been living without housing security. This included residing in boarding houses with high concentrations of other mental health patients. He finds the space and peace and quiet of his new accommodation has made his life much more stable.
- A single parent migrant family with four children, where the parent has a severe illness. Temporary public housing was coming to an end until they were accommodated in the NRAS supported home which is closer to school and the hospital, making life easier for this struggling family.
Case Study - Tasmania's Orana Hostel
In June 2009 work started on the Orana Hostel, which will provide medium-term accommodation (six to 12 months) for single males and females over 20 years of age who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness.
Construction is scheduled for completion in March 2010. Orana Hostel will have 12 bedrooms for clients, support worker bedroom accommodation, an activities room, and dining, kitchen and laundry facilities in the main residence together with a further four one-bedroom independent living units. There will also be a separate caretaker's residence on site.
This model is aimed at providing a solution to prevent vulnerable people from slipping into homelessness due to breakdown in their current accommodation arrangements.
Tony Keenan, Chief Executive Officer, Hanover Welfare Services
'We just reopened our refurbished rooming house.... self contained accommodation for 12 singles and couples...because of funds made available through Nation Building.'
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Innovative housing models
Providing stable accommodation is just one step in addressing homelessness. This vulnerable population needs ongoing support to help address the factors that led them to homelessness.
Some people, such as young homeless people and rough sleepers, may need a greater level of support than other groups. Innovative specialist housing models offer a secure home as well as onsite, wrap around support.
Over the last 12 months across a range of housing programs, the Australian Government with states and territories has funded 41 new innovative housing projects providing 1,720 dwellings or places for people who are homeless including:
- Eight Common ground developments;
- Three innovative housing projects for young people while they work or study based Foyers;
- Two Aged Care facilities for ageing homeless people in Melbourne and Sydney
- (see Wintringham case study);
- (see Mission Australia case study);
- Specialist accommodation for young people aged from 11 years who are unable to live at home such as the new purpose built 'Reunification House' in South Australia for 15 young people and the Youth Housing and Reintegration Services in Queensland to provide 30 bungalows for young people at risk in Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Inala, Mt Isa and Hervey Bay
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Common Ground
The Common Ground model was pioneered in New York. People who have been chronically homeless are provided with quality accommodation and on-site support such as case management, clinical services, rehabilitation and training/employment support in a community setting.
As part of the White Paper eight new Common Ground facilities have been funded across Australia, including:
- The South Australian Government Common Ground model in Port Augusta, which will provide intensive support for 40 Indigenous families.
- Home Ground's Supportive Housing Model in Elizabeth Street Melbourne will target a group of 50 homeless single people with high support needs in a 120 bed facility.
- A new Street to Home 148 unit facility for homeless men to be constructed in East Perth. The complex will include 54 long-term units, 12 crisis units, 42 transitional lodging-house units and a 40-bed aged care facility, managed by St Bartholomew's House. It will open in 2012.
Case study - Common Ground, The Camperdown Project
The Camperdown Project is an integrated social housing project. As a Common Ground development it will provide permanent housing for people who were homeless, as well as delivering on-site support services that will help them get back on their feet. The Camperdown project also includes housing for low-income workers.
The development will include 104 self-contained studios, one and two bedroom apartments, plus space for on-site support services on the ground floor. Tenants will be a mix of previously homeless people and other workers on low incomes. The specially designed building will be located on a site flanked by Pyrmont Bridge Road, Lyons Road, Lambert Street and Layton Street, Camperdown.
It is expected to be built by 2011.
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Stephen Nash, CEO, HomeGround Services and Chairperson, Australian Common Ground Alliance
'For HomeGround, the White Paper offers real hope and national leadership through its ambitious yet achievable vision to halve homelessness by 2020.'
Models to support young people
These models provide young people who cannot live with their families with safe and secure accommodation while they study or work. For example, the Ladder project in St Vincent Street, Port Adelaide will provide 23 self-contained apartments for young people to live in and will provide on site support. This project will receive $9.5 million for capital through A Place to Call Home. This is a joint initiative of the Australian Football League, South Australian and Australian Governments.
Specialist care for ageing homeless people
The Aged Care Act 1997 was amended with effect from 1 July 2009, 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 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.
Case study - Wintringham Aged Care facility in Melbourne
Since its establishment in 1989, Wintringham has championed the right of elderly homeless people to receive appropriate services. Wintringham has been given $3 million to establish new 60 bed aged care facility in the Dandenong's.
Wintringham's CEO, Bryan Lipmann: 'Given the general reluctance of the aged care industry to provide for this vulnerable group, we proposed over many years and to a succession of Commonwealth Aged Care Ministers that the solution was to amend the Aged Care Act to include the elderly homeless as a Special Needs Group. It took the Rudd Government to take up this challenge'.
'As a direct result of the White Paper, the elderly homeless in Australia now have a right to aged care services. This does not exist in many other countries. Time will tell whether this amendment will translate into significant aged care resources being made available to the elderly homeless, but at Wintringham we are optimistic that we now have a platform that signals to all involved in the industry, that the elderly homeless are entitled to access quality aged care services.'
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Case Study - Mission Australia
Mission Australia plans to build a brand new residential service for aged homeless people in Sydney after being awarded a $16 million capital grant by the federal government. Residents will have permanent accommodation in the new service.
The initiative will contribute to the government's commitment to reducing homelessness in line with its White Paper, The Road Home.
Mission Australia's NSW State Director, Leonie Green, said when the new service comes on line it will more than double Mission Australia's permanent accommodation places for elderly homeless people in the state.
'Women will benefit particularly because Mission Australia will be the only organisation in the heart of Sydney that has aged care places for elderly homeless women and there will be more places available thanks to this new development,' said Ms Green.
'The designs draw on the best practice, research, and evidence in both aged care and in homeless services, including Mission Australia's own multi-award winning aged homeless service, Charles Chambers Court.
'Accommodation will be provided in 'pods' to help create small communities within the larger group and each pod of twelve rooms will have a dining area and lounge. There is also a roof-top garden and social spaces in the design.
'Most elderly homeless people have no contact with their family and limited social networks and so building a sense of community is important to their wellbeing and mental health.
'A registered nurse will be onsite seven days a week and through Mission Australia's existing partnerships residents will be able to access doctors, pharmacists, and psycho-geriatricians to name just a few,' said Ms Green.
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Kay Elson Chief Executive Officer, The Haymarket Foundation
'This project has enabled us to permanently house, and support people with complex needs... without this project they would have continued to cycle in and out of crisis homeless services, prison and psychiatric care.'
Modernising boarding hostels
As part of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan, Yarra Community Housing in Victoria (a registered housing association) is receiving $17.5 million to deliver improvements for singles accommodation and rooming house modernisation. This funding will be used to transform seven older style rooming houses into modern housing developments. By the completion of the program in June 2010, 120 rooming house rooms will be transformed into 81 fully self contained studio apartments, with individual own kitchen and bathroom facilities for each unit. A further 17 singles accommodation facilities, plus 24 standalone units, are also undergoing a substantial refurbishment to improve the amenity for residents.
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Linking homeless people back into the community, education and training
Reclink
Reclink helps homeless Australians and other vulnerable people participate in sport and other activities. Reclink has been operating successfully in Victoria since 1990 and has received $5.8m to expand nationally. Sport and recreation improve physical, emotional and mental wellbeing and connect isolated individuals to the services they need.
30 Community Street Soccer projects, supported by the Big Issue, are being established across Australia in 2009-10. The project uses physical activity to reconnect the homeless with the community and provides them with a sense of purpose and belonging.
Additional assertive outreach to rough sleepers
All States and Territories are implementing Street to Home initiatives for chronic rough sleepers. States and Territories are implementing assertive outreach programs to work with the chronically homeless on the streets and facilitate their move to long term accommodation with support.
Case Study - New South Wales Homelessness Intervention Team
The Homelessness Intervention Team urgently responds to the complex needs of rough sleepers in the inner-city of Sydney. The project is part of a cross agency initiative led by Housing NSW, and includes the Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW Health, the Department of Community Services, City of Sydney, and Homelessness NSW. The project has two primary objectives: to urgently house and support chronically homeless people in the inner city of Sydney and to identify and resolve impediments to the effective provision of housing and support services to the broader chronically homeless population in the inner city making recommendations to build the capacity of the existing service system in the longer term.
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Case Study - South Australia's Integrated Homelessness Initiative
The Integrated Homelessness Initiative has drawn on the recognised benefits of service integration in the provision of coordinated and consistent service delivery. It is a joint initiative between the Department of Health and the Department for Families and Communities (DFC), with a direct target of rough sleepers and chronic homeless, initially within the inner city.
The service model brings together seconded staff from various divisions of SA Health and DFC in order for them to provide direct services and improved access to the mainstream government departments they represented. Implemented in September 2009, staff representing Housing SA, Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Services, have been located together at the 'Street to Home' service, to create a multi-disciplinary team. They remain employees of their respective departments, but work together as a team each day.
Each worker provides assessment, interventions, services and referrals which reflect their specialised professions and service connections. Services are brought to homeless clients instead of homeless people having to navigate complex systems to get the help they need.
Improved legal services for the homeless
Access to free legal services for the homeless or those at risk of homelessness is essential, especially for those with issues resulting from domestic violence, debt or tenancy disputes. In May 2009 the Government provided $2.35 million one-off funding to 36 community legal centres to continue to support those most vulnerable in the community.
In June 2009, $124,000 of this funding was used to establish a trial legal clinic for homeless people in the ACT, and to assist the Homeless Persons' Legal Clinic in Victoria.
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Education and training
Education is essential to finding a job, and ongoing training and improved skills help individuals and the nation. A range of programs are in place to assist homeless Australians or those at risk of homelessness to stay connected to education, or access training.
In 2009-10, the Australian Apprenticeships Access Programs will provide 15,000 vulnerable job seekers facing barriers to skilled employment with individualised pre-vocational training, job search and post-placement support to help participants gain and maintain an Australian Apprenticeship, other employment or further education.
- From 1 January 2010, Youth Connections will provide tailored and flexible interventions and outreach services for at risk young people so they can re-engage with education or training. Providers work with severely disengaged young people, which may include homeless youth to overcome the barriers which lead to their disengagement, before re-engaging them with education or training.
- The Compact with Young Australians has been put in place to encourage young people to remain in study or training until they complete at least a Year 12 or equivalent qualification, if they have the capacity to do so. Under the Compact young people are required to stay in school until they complete Year 10, and then participate in full-time education, training or employment (or a combination of these) until they turn 17. The Compact is supported by changes to Youth Allowance (Other) and Family Tax Benefit (Part A), and a range of programs are available to stabilise homeless young people's personal circumstances so that they can access education or training.