Presentation Transcript

1. Homeless Persons Week Welcome to the Western Australian Launch of Homeless Persons Week Annual national event to raise awareness of homelessness The WA peak body for community housing and homelessness services, CHCWA, coordinates Homelessness Persons Week on a state level
2. About CHCWA Peak industry body for the community housing sector and homelessness in WA Represents over 260 Community Housing Providers with approximately 8,000 dwellings state-wide CHCWA’s vision is the creation of a world class social and affordable housing system in Western Australia
3. 5th – 9th August Mobile GP Soup Kitchen 6PR & Community Newspaper Group Sox ’n’ Jox Appeal 5th – 11th August The Bell Tower lights up orange in honour of Homeless Persons Week 6th August Homeless Persons Week Cup 8th August The Great Debate: We have Failed the Homeless 9th August Helping Community Connect Peel’s Hidden Homeless 10th August CHCWA Walk to Support the Homeless 10th – 11th August YACWA Home is where my heart is Photo Exhibition
4. The importance of home
5. What is homelessness? When a person: has a current living arrangement that: is in a dwelling that is inadequate; has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable; or does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations, and does not have suitable accommodation alternatives. *Definition used in the ABS’s Information Paper – A Statistical Definition of Homelessness (2012)
6. Primary (e.g. sleeping rough or in improvised dwellings) Secondary (e.g. emergency accommodation, youth refuges, couch surfing) Tertiary e.g. boarding houses and caravan parks
7. Source: Homelessness Australia WA Fact Sheet
8. Who are the homeless? There are 4 main pathways into homelessness: Housing stress, often driven by poverty and accumulating debt Family breakdown, particularly driven by domestic violence Poor life transitions, particularly transitions out of the child protection system, prison or statutory care Untreated mental health and substance use disorders that lead to the loss of housing, education, employment, family and other relationships Source: Commonwealth Government’s White Paper on homelessness, The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness
9. The changing face of homelessness “We have people who are working families, who are going to work, who are on an income who can’t afford the rental house that they were in before.” “The face of homelessness is changing rather dramatically … long gone are the days of the stereotypical homeless person being the image of an old man swinging a wine bottle in a paper bag. It’s not like that anymore. It would blow you away in terms of who you’d see on the street in Fremantle who doesn’t look homeless, who are trying to hold down a job, who are sending their kids to school after sleeping in their car all night.”
10. Homelessness and the housing market failure More and more, the unaffordability of housing is pushing people into the ABS definition of homelessness: inadequate dwellings tenure lacking security no control of, or access to, space for social relations no suitable accommodation alternatives
11. Issue 1: Housing Affordability
12. Biggest Housing Boom in Australian History Source: RBA 2011 conference paper by Judith Yates Housing in Australia in the 2000s: On the Agenda Too Late?
13. Australian Banks like lending to Property buyers
14. Aussie banks mortgaged to the hilt
15. Who is borrowing the money? Source: RBA 2011 conference paper by Judith Yates Housing in Australia in the 2000s: On the Agenda Too Late?
16. Life made harder for the FTB Deposit Gap Source: RBA 2011 conference paper by Judith Yates Housing in Australia in the 2000s: On the Agenda Too Late?
17. Income required to service an average FHB loan Source: RBA 2011 conference paper by Judith Yates Housing in Australia in the 2000s: On the Agenda Too Late?
18. Average annual earning and average home loan size, WA
19. Issue 2: Private rental market in failure
20. Cost of living increases: CPI v Perth median rent December 2010 to March 2013
21. How can this be? Investor activity is strong.
22. But it is not translating into extra supply
23. New home sales have fallen nationally
24. Structural nature of the failure of the private rental market
25. Issue 3: A public housing system bursting at the seams
26. Social housing as a percentage of overall housing stock (selected OECD countries & WA)
27. It’s all connected!
28. WHO CARES?
29. Auspoll: How important are the following issues to you and your family?
30. Auspoll: How well does Australia currently perform when it comes to the following issues?
31. Auspoll: Which federal party has a clear plan to improve housing affordability?
32. Tackling homelessness: what’s being done The Commonwealth, State and NGOs are working to address the cause of homelessness and provide a framework for preventing homelessness occurring Both the Commonwealth and State governments have committed billions of dollars across a spectrum of initiatives aimed at reducing homeless and creating more social and affordable housing opportunities
33. Since 2009: $135.2 millionpledged jointly by the Commonwealth and State over four years (from July 2009) to reduce homelessness under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, with a further $29.08 million pledged jointly under this year’s 12-month extension. $6.2 billion worth of housing assistance to low and middle income Australians in the first 5 years (from 1 January 2009). $5.5 billion over ten years (to 2018) under the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing to address significant overcrowding, homelessness, poor housing conditions and the severe housing shortage in remote Indigenous communities. $590.22 millionto WA to construct new dwellings and refurbish existing social housing dwellings as part of the $5.6 billion Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan. $40.5 million to WA under the National Partnership Agreement on Social Housing to increase the supply of social housing. Improvements to Centrelink’s capacity to respond to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Additional emergency relief funding, more personal helpers and mentors for people living with severe mental illness, innovative and employment services and increased capital and recurrent funding for elderly people who are homeless. $48 million invested by the State to help build 1,000 new affordable homes
34. Examples of success Increasing professionalisation and growth and development of Community Housing Sector The Salvation Army’s The Beacon St Bartholomew’s Lime Street The Oxford (Youth) Foyer
35. However … 2011-2012: estimated 136,818 requests for service nationally where those people were not able to be assisted at all A growing number of people who qualify for public and social housing are being pushed in the private rental market, where they are at risk of becoming homeless Further problems faced in regional areas:“In areas like the Kimberley and Pilbara where housing is either not available or available only at extraordinarily high rental, unless accommodation can be made available for workers and there is some guarantee of timely housing for program participants, a program like the Housing Support Workers – Drug & Alcohol should not be implemented.”
36. What needs to happen next Recognise that the problem is structural, not cyclical Maintain the recent significant investment in the development and expansion of homeless services Grow and develop our social and affordable housing system
37. For more information on HPW13 CHCWA website http://www.communityhousing.com.au/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HomelessPersonsWeekWA Twitter @CHCWA