Where to next?

1. Where to next?

2. Where to next? How effective is current housing policy at re-establishing housing after a period of homelessnessSimon SmithPolicy and Research Manager

3. Overview • Current situation: housing careers after homelessness • What role does housing policy play? - public housing - community housing - access to private rental • Conclusion

4. Current situation • What do housing careers after a period of homelessness look like? • Housing and SAAP clients - half of all people who leave SAAP remain homeless or are marginally housed

5. Current situation • Homeless or marginally housed immediately after support • SAAP/CAP – 17% • Boarding – 16% • living rent-free – 6.5% • sleep rough – 4.7% • caravan park – 2.2%

6. Current situation • Major types of housing immediately after SAAP support • private rental – 26.7% • public housing – 15.6% • community housing – 5.6%

7. Current situation • Difficult to determine to what is happening outside SAAP - no national longitudinal data set we can use

8. What role does housing policy play? public housing community housing support to access private rental

9. Public housing Overall, 16% of people exit from SAAP into public housing immediately after support - 28% in ACT, 7% in Qld

10. Public housing Nearly all jurisdictions use homelessness as part of priority access criteria, eg NSW – ‘urgent housing need’ Vic – ‘recurring homelessness’ WA & ACT – primary, 2ndry, tertiary homelessness SA – individual needs assessment, uses SAAP definition of homelessness

11. Public housing other common categories also picked up in priority access criteria eg common emphasis on women escaping DV, families with children at risk of harm SAAP exits by client type women with children and single women >25 make up 60% of all exits into public housing

12. Public housing • Overall, only 38% of new housing allocations in 2005-06 were for people in ‘greatest need’ • ‘greatest need’ picks up on many common elements in priority access criteria

13. Public housing

14. Public housing • Why don’t homeless, other people ‘in greatest need’ get broader access to public housing? • ‘Devil is in the detail’ • Have to show that can’t meet need in private rental market, eg NSW – private rent is considered affordable as long as it is not over 50% of gross income

15. Public housing • Have to have independent income for minimum period, eg Qld – 6 weeks • nationally, median length of stay in SAAP is 6 days

16. Public housing • Lose priority access if you decline an offer in preferred area • Past tenancy history taken into account - some jurisdictions require you to start to repay previous debts before you can be considered for public housing - previous tenancy behaviour

17. Public housing • Even where can get access, waitlists delay access to public housing - national wait list of 11,000 people in this category - 49% of all people ‘in greatest need’ don’t get access til after three months

18. Public housing • Even when get into public housing, many at risk of returning to homelessness • Hanover study found one in five public housing tenants lost their tenancy within 12 months • Reasons for seeking SAAP support - eviction (20%) - domestic/family violence (18%)

19. Public housing • Increasing complexity of public tenants - Vic, ‘early housing’ allocations have increased from 14% in 1993/94 to 72% in 2003/04 - SA, category 1 applicants have increased from 13% in 1992/93 to 60% in 2004/05

20. Public housing • Some programs for ‘high risk’ tenants - SHASP (Vic), SHAP (WA), STP (SA) • Sometimes linked to homeless strategies - eg funding SHAP in WA has been increased of part of State strategy • But not always … - eg Vic – not eligible for SHASP if accessing public housing via Segment 1 or segment 3, ‘insecure housing’

21. Public housing • AHURI currently doing a research project to document models of best practice - what is meant by ‘high risk’? - how do we identify? - what services do people need to be linked with?

22. Community housing • Very small proportion of SAAP clients exit into community housing - about 6% nationally • Small number of exits is deceptive - community housing only comprises about 7% of national housing stock - but makes up 23% of exits into social housing

23. Community housing • How well does community housing support tenancies compared to public housing? - would be interesting to look at longitudinal outcomes • Much higher proportion of new tenants ‘in greatest need’ - community housing – 71%, public – 37%

24. Community housing • Some support specifically for the homeless - eg 10 community housing org’s in NSW, • Other groups that overlap • families, people with low income (large), • youth, substance abuse (small),

25. Private rental • A quarter of people who leave SAAP are next housed in the private rental market • People who exit into private rental more likely to lose their housing • ‘On the Move’ found that: - 33% of those who exited into private rental were homeless vs - 10% of those who exited into social housing

26. Private rental Major types of support: bond loans, advanced rental payments Rental property must be ‘affordable’ ‘Affordability’ is defined in reference to a certain proportion of gross income Looking across jurisdictions, this is usually set around 50-65%

27. Private rental • Some jurisdictions have programs for ‘high needs’ groups eg - Rental Liaison Service, SA - Private Rental Support and Advocacy Program, WA

28. Conclusion Policy could do much more to re-establish housing after a period of homelessness Access criteria are not working: why? Support programs for ‘high risk’ tenants differ between jurisdictions

29. Conclusion • Community housing might present opportunities, but need more information • Rental programs – largely about giving financial support to enter the market - are we being realistic about how we define what is affordable?

30. Conclusion • Need for longitudinal research - what do housing careers after a period of homelessness look like at the moment? - what types of supports are most effective at maintaining tenancies?