Eliminating most forms homelessness in Australia is achievable according to new AHURI research which proposes ways to redesign and reimagine the homelessness service support system.
The research, ‘Ending Homelessness in Australia: A redesigned homelessness services system’, undertaken by researchers from Swinburne University, University of South Australia and UNSW Sydney is the final report from a three stage Inquiry.
The Inquiry examined the Australian homelessness service system from the perspectives of different groups of homeless people at different life stages—young people, families and children, Indigenous Australians and older people—together with an exploration of successful support models internationally.
Looking at developing international trends in European countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as in Wales, Scotland and England, the research identified several important factors: starting with the rights and needs of each person; prevention and early intervention; a Housing First approach; strategic funding; a continuous and constant initiative; and multi-level governance.
‘Our research has proposed a number of strategies that if implemented could virtually eliminate most case of homelessness,’ says lead researcher Dr Angela Spinney from Swinburne University of Technology.
‘Some of the key elements are a new national homelessness initiative which would include an ongoing funding arrangement; a focus on prevention and early intervention rather than a crisis-driven response; and adopting a ‘Housing First’ approach, which requires an adequately planned supply of long-term affordable and social housing that is appropriate, secure and safe.
‘Indeed, by adopting a Housing First approach, Finland and Norway have dramatically reduced the number of homeless people in their jurisdictions.’
An important factor in an improved homelessness support system is an enhanced role for universal welfare services in their ‘duty to assist’, where they would adopt a ‘first to know, first to act’ approach by screening all clients to assess for risk of homelessness; seeking to prevent homelessness through the use of assistance and brokerage funding to assist clients to maintain existing housing or access new housing; and referring to a homelessness support service when necessary for assistance into Housing First or crisis accommodation.
‘Currently, we have a separate homelessness systems in each of Australia’s states and territories, which can make the systems hard to navigate. A properly designed system with nationally consistent goals and policies would help deliver even better outcomes,’ says Dr Michael Fotheringham, Executive Director of AHURI, which funded the research.
‘Critical to any system change in Australia is an explicit acknowledgement that governments—state, territory and federal—are just one part of the system seeking to reduce the impact of homelessness on affected individuals. There is a need for genuine dialogue between governments, the not-for-profit sector and other stakeholders,’ says Dr Fotheringham.
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