Page 3213 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 10 November 2021
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that there would be no interruption in service for the community. This includes funding for 80 community organisations and the continuation of the Child, Youth and Family Services Program, the Community Development Program, including emergency assistance and financial aid, and community transport.
It also includes funding for vulnerable children to access early childhood education and care, funding for services through Child and Youth Protection Services, the Office for Multicultural Affairs, the Office for Seniors and Veterans, the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, and all specialist homelessness services. This covers 175 community programs.
In addition, the government has sought proactively to reassure the ACT community sector that a flexible approach will be taken in response to all contracts for non-COVID-19 related services. All community organisations that receive funding through the Community Services and Health directorates were provided with written advice that all reporting requirements and contracted outputs would be managed flexibly throughout the COVID lockdown restrictions. Organisations were also informed that they could provide services flexibly to respond to community need during this challenging time.
We know there has been an increase in people accessing homelessness services in the ACT. The complexity of their needs has also increased, particularly through the challenges brought about by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 through to our just finished lockdown. During this time the specialist homelessness sector has demonstrated its responsiveness in adapting service delivery in a COVID-safe operating environment and continuing to provide services to those in need.
The ACT government continues to work closely with frontline services to ensure continuity of specialist homelessness services, including programs which commenced operation during the COVID-19 pandemic. These programs cover crisis accommodation, transitional housing, domestic violence counselling, education, support and advocacy services.
This builds on recent government actions in this area, including funding of $1.948 million in the 2020-21 budget for five specialist homelessness programs in response to COVID-19 as part of the government’s commitment to addressing homelessness in the ACT.
Since the pandemic began, many community organisations have experienced a significant drop in their incomes, due to reduced revenue, cancellation of fundraising events and reduced philanthropic donations. To assist the sector to continue to afford rent, as part of the ACT’s economic stimulus package response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACT government has provided rent relief to over 230 of its tenants, of which 186 are community tenants. This relief has been extended, and I am pleased to say that eligible organisations will have their rent waived through to December 2021.
In addition, the recent budget committed $4 million over four years to increase the community sector indexation rate applied to annual funding. This will assist
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