Social Housing Advocacy Support Program (SHASP)

HomeGround’s SHASP program provides support to public and social* housing tenants to help them establish and maintain stable tenancies.

HomeGround runs the largest SHASP service in Victoria with bases in St Kilda, Preston and Collingwood covering a wide area from the outer north of Melbourne through the CBD to the middle south.

HomeGround works with clients experiencing difficulties with a range of issues including substance use, mental illness, family violence, issues related to being a refugee and gambling addiction. Any of these issues may affect a person’s ability to stay housed.

HomeGround liaises with the Office of Housing on behalf of tenants and attends hearings of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to advocate on a tenant’s behalf where necessary. The service also provides support to clients who are establishing a new home by providing material aid (eg. furniture), referring them to local support agencies and giving them information about their new neighbourhood.

SHASP is largely an outreach service and workers often visit clients at home to assess what support each person needs. Support can be personal or property-related.

The Department of Human Services is currently undertaking an evaluation of the SHASP program across Victoria. This is a significant milestone for the program after two and a half years. HomeGround is also carrying out an evaluation of the effectiveness of its own SHASP service and analysing outcomes for clients in the northern region.

The results of these evaluations will inform improvements across HomeGround’s SHASP services. Meanwhile, the SHASP service continues to try to meet the challenge of
increasing demand over the past year through prioritising need and maintaining good communication and relationships with the referral body, the Office of Housing.

In the next year HomeGround’s SHASP service will be providing relocation support to residents of The Mews public housing estate in Broadmeadows, which will be demolished and replaced with a mix of public, social and private housing.

* Social housing includes public and community (not-for-profit) housing.

SHASP brochure.

Social Housing Advocacy Support Program (SHASP) case study

Jeremy* is in his early 40s and has been helped by HomeGround several times over a period of nearly ten years. On Jeremy’s first contact with HomeGround
he was homeless and HomeGround’s Housing Service assisted him to apply for public housing.

Jeremy had a lengthy history of homelessness relating to relationship breakdown and drug use. While Jeremy was homeless, HomeGround Outreach provided him with support and also referred him to HomeGround’s Social Housing Advocacy and Support Program (SHASP) program when Jeremy moved into public housing outside Outreach’s catchment area.

SHASP helps clients establish and maintain public housing tenancies and can work in larger catchment areas than many other programs.

While working with HomeGround Outreach, Jeremy was referred to a drug and alcohol service and began pharmacotherapy treatment for his drug use.

At the time of his SHASP referral, Jeremy’s main difficulties were around housing and debt. SHASP helped him negotiate with the Office of Housing to have repairs done at his flat to improve security and the general condition of the accommodation.

The Outreach and SHASP programs worked together to provide furniture and other household items that helped make his house more of a ‘home’. Jeremy accompanied
HomeGround staff to choose furniture.

HomeGround also referred him to a financial counsellor to help him address his debt problems.

Although Jeremy has had some lapses in his treatment for drug use, he has not had a major relapse. During those smaller lapses however, Jeremy’s rent would go into arrears. HomeGround stepped in to negotiate with the Office of Housing around developing affordable payment plans.

As a result of being transient for many years, Jeremy was also initially anxious about moving into a permanent home. SHASP provided emotional support while Jeremy became accustomed to living in his new home.

Jeremy has now lived there for two years. In that time he has reconnected with his two estranged children. His homelessness and drug use had caused this separation. Now that he has a stable home, other family members also come to visit and he is building relationships again.

* Name has been changed