Many Ways
Home…
From the Green to
the White Paper on
homelessness
• White Paper one of the first detailed
examples of ‘social inclusion’ in practice
• If we get this strategy right, it will go a long
way to achieving social inclusion
• Will involve how we respond to almost
every social issue
– women escaping domestic violence
– people leaving prison
Overview of presentation
1. Lobbying around the Green and White
Papers this year
2. Submission to the Green Paper
3. What happens now?
•
•
homelessness and the National Affordable
Housing Agreement or ‘NAHA’
what will we have to keep pushing for?
1. Lobbying around the Green and White
papers
• January: White Paper announced
• February: met with new Minister for
Housing
– were also meeting with new portfolios
•
March: hosted the Green Paper
roundtable
• May: National Homelessness Conference
– PM opened the Conference and launched the
Green Paper
– more than 1000 people attended each day
• June: developed our submission
– worked with State/Territory homeless peak
bodies to identify a shared position
• July: kept talking to politicians
– met with Plibersek again
– wrote to all Cabinet Ministers to seek
opportunity to put our key points
– met with Minister for Human Services, Office of
Anthony Albanese,
• August: Homeless Persons Week
• 22 Aug: wrote to all Cabinet Ministers again
2.
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•
•
Submission to the Green Paper
Strong reaction against the 3 options
We developed ‘option 4’
Based on
a)
b)
c)
d)
program and funding arrangements
whole of government policy settings
legislative and accountability framework
a partnership approach
a) Program and funding arrangements
• Need to set out a 10 year increase in
housing
•
Without housing to move into, not
surprising don’t achieve outcomes in
employment, health, etc
• Know that funding for public/community
housing has in real terms
– Plibersek has said that previous Govt took out
$3.5b from the CSHA
• NRAS won’t necessarily ↑ housing options
• Tax review?
•
Enhance SAAP: remains most effective
way to link clients with services
Improve the current SAAP response
•
–
–
–
–
meet unmet demand
provide more $$ to work with clients
fund accompanied children as clients
address workforce development: pay,
training, career pathways, etc
•
New stream of funding which supports
clients over extended period of time
–
–
–
agencies aren’t resourced to do this sort of
work at the moment
similar approach is used in other programs
type / intensity of support will vary according
to people’s needs
•
Increase capital funding
–
–
–
capital is an essential component of service
delivery for clients and staff
clients value appropriate, well maintained
properties that are safe
staff need reception areas, workspaces and
training rooms
•
Expand early intervention and prevention
programs
– Reconnect, HOME Advice
b) whole of government policy settings
Commonwealth
• DV: use National Council
• employment services
• improve income support
• indigenous affairs
• aged care
• immigration
States/Territories
• Improve mainstream response
• Waiting lists for lots of services
• Support for people leaving institutions
– state care
– prison
– mental health
c) Legislative and accountability framework
• Homelessness Act
• Targets must use the holistic definition of
homelessness
• Research to test how we are going
– need for a longitudinal study
– how do changes in policy, programs affect the
level of homelessness?
•
Strong peak bodies at national,
State/Territory level
• National lead agency that can assess how
we our approach is progressing
d) Partnership approach
• Simplify contracts
• Pay people appropriately
• Indexation
3. What happens now?
• NAHA one of 5 specific purpose payments
• Remains to be seen how NAHA will
influence next steps
• SAAP $$ will now be under the same
agreement as public et al Govt housing
• What will happen to the architecture of
SAAP?
• SAAP has its own
– Act of Parliament,
– governance arrangements,
– data set and evaluation mechanisms
• NAHA could mean no change: could simply
make SAAP a ‘sub-program’
• But what would be achieved by putting
streamlining the number of SPPs together?
• Some big fundamental issues that aren’t
going to be addressed in the White Paper
alone
– community sector workforce
– access to Government services
Workshop questions
1. What are the critical things that you want
to see in the White Paper?
2. What can we do to put pressure on the
Government if the White Paper falls short
of expectations?