Page 2542 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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Ainslie Village is currently moving from a SAAP-funded site to a long-term community housing site where residents will have access to a range of mainstream services which meet their individual support requirements. This transition has been in place for some time. Ainslie Village, in concert with the residents there, has been, through Centacare managers and Housing ACT most particularly, changing significantly in nature and scope. It is now being managed very much as a long-term community housing site rather than in the style of a hostel, which was very much its past.
The government has indeed endorsed substantial savings to be made at Ainslie Village over a period of two years as it moves from a supported accommodation site to community housing. Centacare currently receives SAAP funding of $180,000 to provide subsidised meals for residents of Ainslie Village, and residents are charged by Centacare $6 each for those meals. It was the government’s proposal that that funding cease this year. A meeting with stakeholders on site, including the residents council and ACT Health, on 16 August last—in other words, last week—identified a number of issues on which the department will work with those clients to address throughout the transition. Those include a number of infrastructure issues, including issues about shared kitchen facilities in each block and the adequacy of those kitchen facilities for the residents of Ainslie Village.
It is certainly the case, recognised by the government, that the dining room provides a very important social hub. It is very much at the heart of some of the aspects and activities of the village, and we understand that. In that context, the department is currently negotiating with the Australian Red Cross to establish alternative meals provision on site from 1 October this year, which would be an interim arrangement in relation to the transition and the potential closure of the dining room. That proposal would include the Red Cross transporting meals to the site and making arrangements to sell and supply those meals through a volunteer program to residents of Ainslie Village.
Funding of $60,000 also has been identified to support Ainslie Village residents during the phase-out of the services. It will provide life skills training to help people learn to shop and cook and also identify further infrastructure issues which may arise. The Red Cross will include this work in submitting to the department its broader volunteer program and meals proposal, which is expected to be received, I think, this week.
The department will continue to meet with residents on site to clarify the role of on-site providers, the residents and the site manager, including the development of assessment tools which would assist in identifying issues which have not already been identified or which may emerge as this proposal is continued or furthered.
At the heart of the decision the government has taken and is seeking to implement is, of course, the issue of the use or appropriate priority of utilising SAAP funding of $180,000 to provide meals. This funding is essentially for supported accommodation, and that was at the heart of the decision and behind the decision which the department has taken in relation to the appropriate utilisation of housing funds for the provision and maintenance of a dining room. The minister, Ms Gallagher, discussed the issue with me subsequent to the decision having been made. She is acutely sensitive to the issues and the vulnerability of some of the residents of Ainslie Village. The minister has indicated to me that it is a decision and a process which she will closely monitor. In the event that, through this stage of very close and continuing consultation—
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