❓ Mr. Carey asks about the impact of the McGowan government's homelessness funding, particularly regarding Common Ground facilities. The Minister outlines the 'All Paths Lead to a Home' strategy, funding for Common Ground facilities and the Housing First approach.
AnsweredQoN 1124Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
HOMELESSNESS STRATEGY
1124. Mr J.N. CAREY to the Minister for Community Services:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's record funding boost for
homelessness services in Perth, including the development of two new
common ground facilities. Can the minister outline to the house how this
unprecedented commitment towards tackling this complex issue will help break
the cycle of homelessness and support those who are sleeping rough?
1124. Mr J.N. CAREY to the Minister for Community Services:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's record funding boost for
homelessness services in Perth, including the development of two new
common ground facilities. Can the minister outline to the house how this
unprecedented commitment towards tackling this complex issue will help break
the cycle of homelessness and support those who are sleeping rough?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Perth for his
work on this issue. He has done a lot of work on the ground with the City of
Perth and his local community to try to come up with good, practical solutions
to what are very complex problems. I was very proud to stand alongside the
Premier and the Minister for Housing last week for the announcement of a $225 million
package to underpin our homelessness strategy, which is called ''All
Paths Lead to a Home: Western Australia's10-year Strategy on
Homelessness 2020–2030''. We have talked about this issue quite
a bit in the house. There is a problem with homelessness in our state—it
is a problem in many jurisdictions across Australia and across the world, frankly. These are not easy issues to overcome. We
have spent the better part of a year, coming up to 18 months, working
with the not-for-profit sector to co-design the best approach possible, if we
could attract new funding. We looked at what
the evidence is showing is the best approach, to make sure that we not only can
give emergency relief to those people who are sleeping rough, but also
put them into the right sort of accommodation and give them the supports that
they need to stay in that accommodation in the long term. I am confident that
we have arrived at that point with this
significant funding boost underpinning it. First, $35 million will fund two
common ground facilities, which will
provide stable accommodation and support for people who are sleeping rough.
Every other Australian capital city has at least one common ground
facility. I visited one in Brisbane that has about 100 self-contained units.
About 50 per cent of those units are given to people who experience
homelessness, while the other half are social housing units, for which people
have a tenancy agreement and are required to meet tenancy requirements.
Importantly, they are given supports, and the accommodation is very much geared
to their needs. It has been a very successful model. We will fund two of those,
with probably about 100 units, but we will see what the money buys us. One of
them will be in the City of Perth jurisdiction, and we will work with the City
of Perth and the community to identify the right location.
The other component of this funding
is $34.5 million towards the Housing First approach. Members have heard me speak about this before. It essentially
involves outreach workers targeting people who are sleeping rough and are chronically homeless, identifying those who
want to engage and the sort of accommodation they want, and sourcing that accommodation. In fact, the Housing First component is not dependent on
those people waiting on new builds; it has a
rental subsidy component. There will be an allocation of specific resources in
Perth, Rockingham, Mandurah , Bunbury and Geraldton. We will track the
outcomes and identify how we are going with housing those people and giving
them the right supports. The 50 Lives 50 Homes project, which is a Housing
First approach in the Perth metropolitan area, has housed about 147 people in
the two or three years it has been operating, and has provided very good
stability for the people it has been able to house. Since the 20 Lives 20 Homes
project was announced in August, which is essentially funded by philanthropic
effort backed up by some money from the Department of Communities, I understand
that about seven people have been housed or are on the way to securing housing,
which is a good outcome.
I
am confident that we have got the mix right. The homelessness component is $72 million.
The other component is the building
of up to 500 new residences—300 public housing residences, and then
some Keystart and refurbishment money as well. That will prioritise
people who are at risk of homelessness. This has been given good support from
the housing industry, including the Property Council of Australia, Ruah
Community Services, Anglicare WA, the Western Australian Council of Social
Service and Shelter WA. I could talk about how they have applauded this effort.
I do not pretend that this will make homelessness go away, but I think we are
giving it the best shot possible and backing it up with real money, which has
been possible only because of the good budget management and financial repair undertaken by this government. We
are giving it our best shot. I am very proud of this package and I think
most Western Australians should be proud too.
work on this issue. He has done a lot of work on the ground with the City of
Perth and his local community to try to come up with good, practical solutions
to what are very complex problems. I was very proud to stand alongside the
Premier and the Minister for Housing last week for the announcement of a $225 million
package to underpin our homelessness strategy, which is called ''All
Paths Lead to a Home: Western Australia's10-year Strategy on
Homelessness 2020–2030''. We have talked about this issue quite
a bit in the house. There is a problem with homelessness in our state—it
is a problem in many jurisdictions across Australia and across the world, frankly. These are not easy issues to overcome. We
have spent the better part of a year, coming up to 18 months, working
with the not-for-profit sector to co-design the best approach possible, if we
could attract new funding. We looked at what
the evidence is showing is the best approach, to make sure that we not only can
give emergency relief to those people who are sleeping rough, but also
put them into the right sort of accommodation and give them the supports that
they need to stay in that accommodation in the long term. I am confident that
we have arrived at that point with this
significant funding boost underpinning it. First, $35 million will fund two
common ground facilities, which will
provide stable accommodation and support for people who are sleeping rough.
Every other Australian capital city has at least one common ground
facility. I visited one in Brisbane that has about 100 self-contained units.
About 50 per cent of those units are given to people who experience
homelessness, while the other half are social housing units, for which people
have a tenancy agreement and are required to meet tenancy requirements.
Importantly, they are given supports, and the accommodation is very much geared
to their needs. It has been a very successful model. We will fund two of those,
with probably about 100 units, but we will see what the money buys us. One of
them will be in the City of Perth jurisdiction, and we will work with the City
of Perth and the community to identify the right location.
The other component of this funding
is $34.5 million towards the Housing First approach. Members have heard me speak about this before. It essentially
involves outreach workers targeting people who are sleeping rough and are chronically homeless, identifying those who
want to engage and the sort of accommodation they want, and sourcing that accommodation. In fact, the Housing First component is not dependent on
those people waiting on new builds; it has a
rental subsidy component. There will be an allocation of specific resources in
Perth, Rockingham, Mandurah , Bunbury and Geraldton. We will track the
outcomes and identify how we are going with housing those people and giving
them the right supports. The 50 Lives 50 Homes project, which is a Housing
First approach in the Perth metropolitan area, has housed about 147 people in
the two or three years it has been operating, and has provided very good
stability for the people it has been able to house. Since the 20 Lives 20 Homes
project was announced in August, which is essentially funded by philanthropic
effort backed up by some money from the Department of Communities, I understand
that about seven people have been housed or are on the way to securing housing,
which is a good outcome.
I
am confident that we have got the mix right. The homelessness component is $72 million.
The other component is the building
of up to 500 new residences—300 public housing residences, and then
some Keystart and refurbishment money as well. That will prioritise
people who are at risk of homelessness. This has been given good support from
the housing industry, including the Property Council of Australia, Ruah
Community Services, Anglicare WA, the Western Australian Council of Social
Service and Shelter WA. I could talk about how they have applauded this effort.
I do not pretend that this will make homelessness go away, but I think we are
giving it the best shot possible and backing it up with real money, which has
been possible only because of the good budget management and financial repair undertaken by this government. We
are giving it our best shot. I am very proud of this package and I think
most Western Australians should be proud too.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.