Homelessness
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:10): (471) My question is for the Minister for Housing. Every time there is a long weekend or a major event in regional Victoria, rates of homelessness rise. This is because homelessness services are forced to rely heavily on hotels and motels for emergency accommodation. When these fill up during major events, there is nowhere for people to go. The sector’s reliance on hotels is a result of people staying in transitional housing for longer periods because of a failure of government to build sufficient public and community housing. Support services are resorting to giving people tents, and we are seeing more children sleeping rough than ever before. Minister, is it the government’s plan to continue to rely on motels for emergency accommodation for people experiencing homelessness?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:11): Thank you for that question. It is an important question because what it demonstrates is the complexity of delivering solutions across the housing continuum, ranging from crisis accommodation, homelessness support services and transitional accommodation through to social housing, the private rental market and then ownership. We know that in addressing homelessness we also need to address the causes of homelessness. The objectives around the work that we are doing in Victoria, which I am also very clear in pointing out the merits of to the Commonwealth in seeking support and additional funding, relate to the objective that homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurrent. One of the things that we do know is that it is necessary to have a range of accommodation options available for people experiencing homelessness so that in particular in circumstances of unusual need – for example, natural disasters and emergencies – we can rely upon the accommodation sector to provide support to people who are experiencing homelessness. We also know that in extreme weather events it is necessary to consider accommodation in the hotel sector, for example, to make sure that people have respite from the heat.
We do have the largest total recurrent expenditure on homelessness services across all jurisdictions. That accounts in Victoria for about 36 per cent of the national total. In the 2023–24 year we have got $67.5 million over four years and $12 million ongoing for the Housing First responses to address chronic homelessness, including From Homelessness to a Home and, under a revised model of that, the Homes First model. We know that in being innovative and also responsive to need as it changes, a variety of hotel accommodation and other options are necessary, and that differs depending on whether you are in the middle of Melbourne or out on the outskirts of the state. But when we talk about bringing additional social housing on line, it is important to note that when and as we do this we are partnering with community housing organisations who provide that wraparound care. St Kilda mission, the work of a range of other organisations and the partnerships, for example, with the Melbourne City Council are all inherently important in making sure that in addressing the importance of brief, rare and non-recurrent homelessness we are providing those solutions. The work that we have done with Homes First has meant that by building From Homelessness to a Home into that model we are seeing around 90 per cent of people who get that accommodation not then returning to homelessness, and that is the objective. But as I said, it does cover an entire continuum, and that is why the record investment that we are making across social housing is so important.
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:14): I thank the minister for her response. Minister, you mentioned that it is understandable that in times of, say, natural disaster you might need motels for emergency accommodation, but this is a very real crisis that has occurred. With Taylor Swift coming to town, we heard from services that they were not able to get accommodation – it is not quite the same as a natural disaster. The Spirit of Tasmania coming to Geelong has knocked off a number of motels that were regularly used for crisis accommodation You also mentioned the goal of homelessness becoming rare, brief and non-recurrent. Well, it is common, chronic and becoming recurrent. In your response you mentioned the role of homelessness services. Despite homelessness support services having to turn away 86 people on an average day in Victoria, the government has actually announced it is going to be cutting funding from the From Homelessness to a Home program, so that means that support for rough sleepers will be cut by 75 per cent. Given these levels of unmet demand for emergency assistance, why are you cutting funding for homelessness support?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:15): Thank you for that supplementary question. As I indicated in the answer to your substantive question, we need to bring additional social housing on line in order to address homelessness and the demand on the system that currently exists. That is why the investment that we are making, including in redeveloping the tower sites with a 10 per cent uplift in social housing, is so important. That is also why in addressing affordability and availability we are going to ease pressure on the sort of rental accommodation that is currently able to be accessed to support people experiencing homelessness. When we talk also about homelessness supports – and I touched on this in my answer to your substantive question – it is revised service models such as Homes First that are able to deliver that support and that care in a way that is really setting world standards for how wraparound services are provided. We know that From Homelessness to a Home, implemented as an emergency response, was part of the response to the pandemic and those challenges. That work goes on through Homes First. I am really happy to give you a briefing on that work as it continues.