Page 2109 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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which any old roof will do. Considerations around transport, safety and geography are all too important in these situations. So, too, is timeliness, and for that reason the Community Services Directorate provides additional responses to domestic housing over a six-week period around Christmas through the domestic violence Christmas program, which provides support and crisis accommodation for vulnerable women and children.
It is also women experiencing homelessness that reminds us of the importance of ensuring housing is available for Canberrans who do not have a stable income. Public housing is the only housing system that takes a client’s capacity to pay as the starting point for their housing costs. For women, who are more likely to have been out of the workforce, who are more likely to be in casualised work and who often take on the full burden of caring responsibilities, public housing is often their only truly accessible form of housing.
I am proud to be part of a government that is not just looking to market-based solutions but is committed to ensuring that public housing is available to those who need it. Yet, sometimes housing is not the only solution. I recently spoke to Neil Skipper, the CEO of Havelock House, about the frustration and difficulty he faces knowing that his service often has available beds while people are sleeping rough 20 metres away. The stories Neil shares about the difficulty some people have sustaining tenancies, even when costs are covered and wrap-around support is available, is the reason I am pleased to be part of a government that knows that addressing homelessness is not a simple or one-size-fits-all approach.
The ACT government is working hard to support people who are, for a range of reasons, experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and Mr Barr has talked at length about a number of the services that have been available for people who are at risk of homelessness or are homeless. I want to touch on a few of those again: the supportive tenancy service is a clear example of how early intervention can be effective in preventing homelessness by working with vulnerable people who are experiencing specific challenges and difficulties. The street to home program provides assertive outreach which aims to address the causes of homelessness and assist people to move into stable accommodation when the time is right for them. Street to home not only helps to move people off the street but it also seeks to address the underlying issues that may have contributed to people being homeless in the first instance.
The Early Morning Centre provides free breakfast, support and referral services each week day to homeless and vulnerable and disadvantaged people. At lunch time today I was at a rally supporting the protection of Medicare for people experiencing homelessness. They would have to pay extra money under the federal Liberal government’s plan to include a co-payment for Medicare. I talked to a volunteer who works out of the Early Morning Centre who said that between 20 and 40 people visit the program each day. This morning, on one of our coldest days in so many years, they opened the service earlier than normal because it was so cold and people were lining up outside. That is such an important service for our homeless and vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the Canberra community, and I acknowledge the great work the volunteers do at that centre.
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