1. The Road Home
A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness
March 2009
2. Structure of Presentation
• White Paper on Homelessness: what it says
• Background on new environment in Commonwealth / State
relations
• Implementing the White Paper, what states will do, what the
Commonwealth will do
• Questions and Answers
3. The White Paper - The Road Home
• In Australia, no one should be homeless
• Reducing homelessness is everyone’s responsibility
• Need to take action now
• Once in a generation opportunity to reduce homelessness.
4. Context – Census 2001 to 2006
Homelessness up to 105,000
Older people up 23 %
Children up 22%
Families up 11 %
Rough sleepers 16 %
Youth down 16 %
5. Short term factors impacting on Homelessness are:
• Demographic shifts
• Rising unemployment
• Economic outlook
• Building of over 20,000 new affordable housing
• Lag time in delivering national reforms.
Short term context
6. Pathways to homelessness
1. Financial stress, housing crisis and poverty
2. Family breakdown, particularly driven by domestic violence
3. Poorly managed life transitions, particularly from child protection
system, prison, or mental health care services
4. Untreated mental health and/or substance abuse issues leading
to loss of housing, education, employment, family and other
relationships.
7. Vision
An Australia where fewer people are homeless
and where people who do become homeless are
helped to find permanent accommodation and
the support they need to stabilise their lives.
8. Vision
• Homelessness is everyone’s responsibility.
• Need sustained long-term effort by all levels of government,
business and not-for-profit sector
• Need tailored measures for different groups – children, older
people, Indigenous, etc
• Significant role for mainstream services
• Fewer become homeless and those who do get help quickly.
9. Overall Goals by 2020
• Halve overall homelessness
• provide supported accommodation to all
rough sleepers who seek it.
11. Intergovernmental Agreement
National Partnership on Remote Indigenous Housing $1.9b/10yrs
+
For further information visit: www.coag.gov.au
A Place to
Call Home $300m/5yrs
National Affordable Housing Agreement $6.2b/5yrs
Former SAAP services, crisis accommodation and the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement
National Partnership on Social Housing $400m/2yrs
National Partnership on Homelessness $800m/4 yrs
Nation Building and Economic Stimulus Package
Social Housing: $6b for New Construction/3.5years
$400m for Repair and Maintenance/2yrs
12. COAG Reform Council
• Transparent Reporting
• Schedule C of Intergovernmental Agreement
• Our independent data agencies
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
• Performance indicators stipulated in each National Partnership
13. Interim Targets by 2013
• Reduce homelessness by 20 per cent
• Reduce primary homelessness by 25 per cent
• Reduce people repeating seeking specialist
homelessness services by 25 per cent.
14. Core Outputs
a) Implementation of the A Place to Call Home initiative;
b) Street to home initiatives for chronic homeless people (rough
sleepers);
c) Support for private and public tenants to help sustain their
tenancies, including through tenancy support, advocacy, case
management, financial counselling and referral services; and
d) Assistance for people leaving child protection services, correctional
and health facilities, to access and maintain stable, affordable
housing - ‘no exits into homelessness’
15. Additional Outputs
a) Support services and accommodation to assist older people who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness;
b) Services to assist people who are homeless with substance abuse,
to secure or maintain stable accommodation;
c) Services to assist people who are homeless with mental health
issues to secure or maintain stable accommodation;
d) Support to assist young people to secure or maintain sustainable
accommodation and to re-engage with family, school and work;
e) Improvements in service coordination and provision;
16. Additional Outputs
f) Support for women and children experiencing domestic
and family violence to stay safely in their home;
g) Assistance for people who are homeless, including families
with children, to stabilise their situation and achieve
sustainable housing;
h) Outreach programs to connect rough sleepers to long-term
housing and health services;
i) National, State and rural (inc. remote) homelessness
action plans to assist people who are homeless in areas
identified as having high rates of homelessness
17. j) Support for children who are homeless or at risk of
homelessness including to maintain contact with the
education system;
k) Legal services provided to people who are homeless or at
risk of homelessness as a result of legal issues including
family violence, tenancy or debt; and
l) Workforce development and career progression for
workers in homelessness services
Additional Outputs
18. Key Strategies to 2020
Key strategies to focus government effort and investment:
• Turning off the Tap: intervene early to stop people becoming
homeless
• Improving and expanding services: to ensure quality services
• Breaking the cycle: addressing the causes and quickly moving
people from the crisis system with the support.
19. Turning off the tap
• Homelessness can be prevented
• Prevention and early intervention are the
most effective and efficient ways
• Specific responses are required for different
groups.
20. Turning off the tap – first steps
Commonwealth
• Over 20,000 public houses will built
• Deliver additional community based mental health services
• Increased Centrelink services
• Automatic rent payments from Centrelink benefits
• Regulate tenancy databases and review tenancy laws
• Implement the National Plan to Reduce Violence against
Women and their Children and the National Child Protection
Framework.
21. Turning off the tap – first steps
States
• Tenancy support including advocacy and financial counselling
• Compulsory rent payments from Centrelink benefits
• Regulate tenancy databases to review the impact of tenancy laws
• No exits into homelessness
• Prevention and early intervention services
• Additional services for young people to remain connected with
family where safe
22. Turning off the tap – first steps
States
• Brokerage funds and long term support to assist people with
Mental Health and/or substance abuse issues
• Additional support for women and their children who have
experienced domestic violence to remain safely in their home
23. Improving and expanding services
Commonwealth
• Improve collaboration between specialist and mainstream services
• Review relationship between Centrelink and employment services
• Develop quality standards and service charters
• Commonwealth may introduce flexible funding for services
• Shift service focus to outcomes: stable long-term housing, jobs and training
• Improve service integration through better IT systems
• Enact new legislation building on the existing SAAP Act 1994
• Develop a national homelessness research agenda and database.
24. Improving and expanding
services
States
• Improve collaboration between mainstream and specialist
homelessness services
• No wrong doors
• Improve service integration through improved IT systems
• Advanced practitioners in specialist homelessness services
• Develop regional and local action plans
25. Breaking the cycle – first steps
Commonwealth
• Increase affordable housing by over 20,000 houses
• Build 50,000 more homes for low, moderate income earners (National
Rental Affordability Scheme)
• Provide 90 Centrelink Community Engagement Officers
• Conduct pilots to co-locate housing services in Centrelink Reform
employment services to help job seekers who are homeless
• Provide more aged care places and support for older people who are
homeless
• Increase legal services and voting and civic participation
26. Breaking the cycle – first steps
States
• Build more homes
– National Rental Affordability Scheme
– National Partnerships on Indigenous Housing and Social
Housing
– Nation Building and Economic Stimulus Package
– A Place to Call Home
27. Breaking the cycle – first steps
States
• Brokerage funds to assist children to return home and
school
• Co-location of state and territory housing services in
Centrelink Customer Service Centres
• Improve legal services for people who are homeless or at
risk of homelessness
28. Breaking the cycle – Joint first
steps
• Commonwealth and state and territory need to provide long term
support - more specialist supported accommodation
• Up to 2,700 more homes for homeless or supported
accommodation (APTCH and Social Housing)
• Up to 4,200 new houses, upgrade 4,800 existing houses in remote
Indigenous communities.
• Develop a national homelessness research strategy
• Pilot a data linkage study
29. Breaking the cycle – Joint first
steps
• Reform the National Data Collection process
• An integrated information technology system
• Develop an agreed national accreditation for funded specialist
homelessness services
• New legislation to ensure that people who are homeless receive
quality services and adequate support
• Case management and case planning to prevent people falling
between the gaps
30. White Paper – Implementation
• Changed Commonwealth-State financial relations through National Agreements on
Homelessness, Social Housing, Remote Indigenous Housing
• State and Territory governments responsible for service delivery.
• 50 identified actions in the White Paper to implement
• States to have more flexibility to spend funds on initiatives to suit their individual
jurisdictions
• Commonwealth to work in close partnership with states on their Implementation Plans
for the new Agreements and closely monitor their performance.
31. White Paper – Governance
• Prime Minister’s Council on Homelessness to drive reforms
• Establishment of Bea Miles Foundation to partner business
• Agreed Implementation Plans with States and Territories based on
outcomes, outputs and performance
• COAG Reform Council to analyse and report annually
• Ministerial Councils responsible for implementation
• State / territory regional and local plans and coordination committees
• New legislation with accreditation to ensure quality services and support.
These figures show the increases in homelessness from Census 2001 to Census 2006.
Homelessness has increased by 5 per cent, from 100,000 in 2001 to 105,000 in 2006.
Older people aged 65 years and older has increased from 5,995 to 7,400.
Children 12 years and under has increased from 9,941 to 7,483.
The number of families who are homeless has risen from 6,750 to 7,483.
The number of rough sleepers rose to 16,375 – making up 16 per cent of all people who were homeless on Census night 2006.
The only homeless population group to experience a drop in homelessness was youth. Homeless youth aged 12 to 18 years dropped from 26,060 in 2001 to 21,940 in 2006.
Homelessness is everyone’s responsibility. To end homelessness, it will require sustained long-term effort from all levels of government, business, the not-for profit sector and the community.
The Road Home tailors its response to the needs of particular groups within the homeless population, such as children, older people, young people and Indigenous Australians. Clear principles will guide the response to homelessness to ensure it is client-centred, respectful and effective.
The Australian Government, with the agreement of state and territory governments, has set two headline goals to guide our long term response to homelessness.
Interim targets will measure progress towards The Road Home goals.
By 2013, the government aims to have less then 97,350 homeless Australians.
The second target aims to have less then 12,300 people sleeping rough by 2013
The last target aims to have a 25 per cent reduction in service uses to 13,700 by 2013.
e) e.g. Testing new case-mix funding models to reflect the costs of delivering services to clients with complex needs.
g) This includes early intervention services and financial counselling for families at risk
Under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness and The Road Home, the response to homelessness will be implemented through three strategies:
Turning off the tap: we need effective prevention and early intervention strategies to address both individual and structural causes of homelessness.
2. Improving and expanding services to ensure services become more connected, integrated and responsive to achieve sustainable housing, improve economic and social participation and end homelessness for their clients
3. Breaking the cycle of homelessness to help people get back on their feet by moving people who do become homeless quickly through the crisis system to stable housing with support they need so homelessness does not re-occur
Prevention best focussed on key transition points and life events
Over the next 10 years, effort should be focused on delivering evidence-based prevention at scale across the country
First steps to be undertaken by the Commonwealth are:
First steps for the states and territories are:
The Commonwealth will lead the effort of improved collaboration in the mainstream areas it funds or operates.
For example, the Commonwealth will review the way Centrelink interacts with employment service providers and how they share information about people who are homeless or at risk.
The Commonwealth and states and territories will also develop state and regional homelessness action plans to improve collaboration between mainstream and homelessness services.
We will use homelessness action plans that have already been implemented in some states as good practice examples.
Introduce cross-agency case assessments, case planning, service protocols between homelessness services and mainstream services.
Commonwealth will consider flexible funding to regional services to bring the homelessness sector stakeholders together to deliver integrated service responses.
The states and territories have agreed to a no exits into homelessness and no wrong door where any service will assist people to get the support they need to not be exited into homelessness.
The Commonwealth will test whether outcome-based performance payments can improve housing outcomes for people who are homeless.
States and territories will fund services that focus on outcomes such as long-term housing, employment, training, and social participation as this an effective method of reducing the risk of homelessness recurring.
Both the Commonwealth and States and Territories need to address the issues within the homelessness service sector workforce. Issues such as high staff turnover, low remuneration, lack of career progression and casualisation of the workforce must be addressed to improve and expand services.
NRAS
The Commonwealth will work with Centrelink to ensure that disadvantaged clients and clients who are homeless have enhanced access to Centrelink services.
The Commonwealth will trial the placing of Housing department shopfronts in Centrelink centres. This will ensure that clients who require Centrelink and crisis assistance are also able to seek more stable and longer-term accommodation at the same time.
Under the NAHA, the Commonwealth and States and Territories will work to deliver specialist accommodation.
Does anyone have any Questions regarding the presentation on The Road Home?
