Page 3712 - Week 12 - Thursday, 22 November 2007
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supply of social housing. He also discussed the need for a coordinated service delivery outlining Housing ACT’s improved response to people with mental illness and complex needs and its commitment to working with agencies such as Mental Health ACT and community based support services to identify and respond to tenants with mental illness.
However, it is not possible, nor is it desirable, for the ACT to expect that the housing needs of all people with mental illness will be met through new initiatives or through an increase in public or community housing stock numbers. It is simply not feasible. Nor does it address the ongoing support needs of people as they currently live within the community. Nor does it recognise the often cyclical and episodic nature of mental illness.
It is far more reasonable an approach to understand that the provision of appropriate housing for people with mental illness is achieved via an increase in the skills and capacity of housing providers to understand the impacts and effects of mental illness and to improve their tenancy management and housing services accordingly. In short, sensitive and responsive housing services will provide far more responsive and far-reaching services to these members of the community.
Minister Hargreaves discussed the introduction of pre-allocation case conferencing and a joint appraisal mechanism to determine and assess relative need. He also referred to the multidisciplinary panel, which comprises expertise from across the ACT government and the community sector. These are great initiatives and have already had a positive impact on people coming into public housing. Reforms to the public housing allocation system have resulted in significantly reduced waiting times for those most in need and an improved understanding of, and response to, the issues they may face, such as mental illness.
In June 2007, the average waiting time for priority housing applicants reduced from nine to 12 months to 51 days, and the number of people on the waiting list for public housing was 1,203. By way of comparison, there were almost 2,500 applicants on the public housing waiting list in June 2006 and over 3,000 in June 2005. Applicants in the top priority category waited up to 12 months to be housed.
These new measures complement the role and function of Housing ACT’s three client support coordinators, or CSCs. The role of the client support coordinator is to identify and assist tenants to access appropriate supports and to provide a mentoring and coaching role to housing managers to improve their skills in identifying and responding to the range of client issues. I have been a Housing ACT tenant. I look back at that time and remember how much Housing ACT helped me and my family during our early years.
One of Housing ACT’s roles is to be a post-crisis housing response. As such, it works closely with a range of community agencies to identify the support requirements of tenants at both the allocation and assessment stages and to provide ongoing support to assist people to maintain their tenancy and live independently in the community. Initiatives such as the pre-allocation case conference assist in the identification of client need and enlisting appropriate support agencies.
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