Media releases |
Flagship supportive housing development reaches construction milestone (25/2/2010)
Download media releaseRotary and Homeground join forces to end homelessness in Melbourne (16/12/2009)
COAG can end homelessness - Opinion (26/11/2008)
In a few days time the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) will meet to discuss the nation’s most pressing issues. Homelessness and affordable housing have been highlighted by both Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek and the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as priorities.
Recently released ABS figures from the last census put the total number of homeless Australians at over 100,000 with service agencies describing this as a conservative number.
Homelessness is also an infamous arena for state and federal conflict and buck passing with the usual result being inaction. This inaction has left homeless Australians, both individuals and families, in the shadow of political pragmatism for the last 20 years.
And with the election of the Rudd Government, everything changed. Six months ago I sat with my colleagues from across the sector to listen to our new prime minister speak with passion about the work we do and the traumatic experience of homelessness in Australia.
After many years of feeling like invisible workers in an invisible sector helping invisible people, it was clear we finally had a national leader who saw the true terror of a homeless life and understood that societies, and their governments, are measured by the way they treat their most vulnerable members. Homelessness can be ended and a lot of hope was created that day that the Australian Government was committed setting a measurable target for reduction to guide their vision and strategy.
The Homelessness Green Paper process and sector engagement with the Housing Minister, Tanya Plibersek, reinforced this view over the following months.
The outlook today is not so rosy. My colleagues and I fear that the influence of the global financial crisis and the continued worsening of our own affordable housing crisis have overwhelmed the Federal Government’s commitment to providing serious investment to prevent, reduce and eventually end homelessness.
The Homelessness White Paper has been delayed several times and the talk around the National Affordable Housing Agreement fosters concerns that neither will deliver a comprehensive vision and fully funded strategy.
Coordinated provision of housing together with support service are the proven solution to homelessness. This is known as supportive housing and it is an approach supported by the Federal Government through the Common Ground model. Leadership is also required to break the impasse with the states and a significant injection of funding to where they are needed most will achieve this.
From opposition the Howard Government was criticised for its removal of around $3.5 billion from public housing. Restoring this amount is a clear first step. Ongoing investment then provides the opportunity to change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of individuals and families impacted by, or at-risk of, homelessness.
Significant savings and efficiency gains would then flow across government services including health, welfare and law enforcement delivering both economic and social benefits.
The current economic and political environment means the temptation to shelve new initiatives must be strong and that change, any change, will be viewed with skepticism.
But for anyone who has walked through the squalor of a private boarding house or even spent a few hours locked out of their house on a cold winter night, it is easy to see straight through this policy fog. There are real people suffering here and we have a proven approach to improving their life. What more needs to be said?
There are also the inevitable COAG state-federal issues to rise above. We have heard a lot about ‘ending the blame game’ and if anything can unite state and federal leaders, surely it would be our most marginalised citizens.
Access to safe, affordable and permanent housing is not a luxury. The homelessness sector is asking the Prime Minister and state governments to deliver both a long-term vision and fully funded strategy for homelessness in Australia.
Stephen Nash, CEO, HomeGround Services
Problems and solutions on National Housing Advocacy Day 2008 (23/9/2008)
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ABS cofirms Australian homelessness worsening (4/9/2008)
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