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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (5 March) . . Page.. 530 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

"The need for and provision of human services in the ACT", was released. It examines the extent of the unmet demand for SAAP services in the ACT. Whilst this study concludes that the ACT, based on the latest available census figures, has a lower homelessness rate than other states or territories, the figures quoted for the ACT still do not make comfortable reading. What is the government doing to ensure that Canberrans who are homeless are not left on the street?

MR WOOD: I thank Mr Hargreaves for his compliment. I will not embellish it at all. Housing certainly is a priority for me. I am not sure that housing has always been a priority in this Assembly as we have a bit of catching up to do. We know that there is a problem out there generally in housing, certainly for those who are experiencing a period of homelessness.

Last week I launched CEAS-Canberra Emergency Accommodation Service-in the reception room next door. I know that there is a lot of interest in housing, but I was astounded because that reception room was packed out; so the community is really switched on to this issue.

CEAS, like all good ideas, is based on a simple concept, one that I wish I had thought of or someone else had thought of quite some time ago. It means that with the funding we have provided, $205,000, we are filling two gaps in service provision. As to one of those gaps, for the first time we have one telephone number that people can ring in order to find out where some accommodation is immediately available.

Members who handle these calls in their offices know that the routine I have followed so often is to give people a roneoed fact sheet of telephone numbers, up to 20 or 30 numbers, of the various crisis services and suggest that they try those. This service will collate all that information and there will be on line one person who can tell you the sort of accommodation that caters for your need and which number you should ring to try that. That is excellent and I am sure that members who have handled many calls of this nature will appreciate having that one telephone number.

The other is that there will be a sum of money available for emergency accommodation that will be provided to people. If there is no immediate accommodation with one of the services out there and you can demonstrate a need, there might be a bit of assistance for one, two or three nights in a motel or something of that nature in order to accommodate you because of that difficulty. I think that members will agree that those two services are very important.

The new service, CEAS, will be jointly managed by Lifeline, well known to you, and Anglicare, also well known. They will keep monitoring the various agencies to see where beds are available. It is a good and long overdue service, Mr Hargreaves.

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question of the wonderful minister for housing. Minister, can you tell the Assembly what processes will be followed when someone does ring CEAS?

MR WOOD: When someone rings, information will be available on the appropriate supported accommodation places and the availability of those places. Inevitably, people will need to demonstrate, pretty simply, that they live in the ACT and that they are on a

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