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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (3 April) . . Page.. 1332 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

In the last few days I have received a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare quoting census data. The last census showed that on census night in the ACT there were 1,198 people who were not in a home.

Mr Cornwell: How can you establish that if they were not in a home?

MR WOOD: That is the difficulty, isn't it? That is census information. Many of those people were in SAAP accommodation, in boarding house accommodation or with friends and relatives. That is the ABS data.

Bear in mind that homelessness means that you do not have your own home. In my job as housing minister, I often find that a woman leaves a domestic violence situation and with two or three kids, goes to her mother and says, "Mum, I need help,"and she finishes up in Mum's two-bedroom unit. That is commonplace. A young homeless fellow may sleep on the floor of a mate's house and then go to another mate's house. That is homelessness. Someone may be sleeping in the car. I get stories of that often enough. That is homelessness. One bloke camped outside the front door here. That is homelessness. That person and the person in the Chronicle story, I am sure, would be accommodated if they applied to ACT Housing.

I would reckon that 99.9 per cent of homeless people do not want to be homeless. Mr Cornwell asked, "How do you count these people?"They can be hidden, and the figures might surprise us, but they are there. According to the needs analysis of homelessness in the ACT, as many as 5,350 people in the ACT may experience periods of homelessness each year. That would certainly be consistent with the ABS figures, which are for a period of a year.

Homelessness can mean sleeping rough-out in the open, under a bridge, on Mount Ainslie as some people do, out the front here or in a car. Homelessness can also mean sleeping on a friend's floor or being in those other circumstances I have mentioned. The needs analysis estimates the number of people sleeping rough each night in the ACT to be between 120 and 315. That is an alarming number. It is an estimate, because it is not easy to determine numbers accurately.

Our bean counters tell us it is important to quantify these important social issues. That is true, but in doing this we cannot forget each individual's experience. We must remember those such as Chris and others and ensure our services address their situations.

As I have reported previously to the Assembly, people who are homeless are among the most marginalised and disadvantaged in our community. We all have a responsibility to do as much as possible. In recent years, gaps in the provision of services have been identified in numerous reports, including the one we are debating now. While homeless fathers with accompanying children represent a small proportion of the homeless, their needs have certainly been highlighted through these reports.

What clearly emerged from these deliberations is the absolute requirement for a coordinated whole-of-government approach. In order to scope the extent of the problem and provide a basis for a long-term approach to the problem, the government

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