Page 900 - Week 03 - Thursday, 19 March 2015
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No-one should seek to make political mileage on the back of those in our community who often suffer from the greatest hardship. With that in mind, I want to paint a full picture of Canberra’s public and community housing sector and its importance for inclusion, equality and fairness in our community. In 2013-14 a total of 22,605 Canberrans lived in public housing across 10,724 tenancies. In the current financial year, the government is spending more than $20 million on homelessness service delivery. The Productivity Commission’s recent Report on government services, ROGS, highlighted the persistent demand which exists for public housing but also showed the effectiveness of allied services in responding to pressing need, for example, in those accessing supported accommodation services, where the ACT rate is triple the national average.
Through the work of the government and the community housing providers across the service network we have a strong understanding of the forces which can lead people to homelessness. For example, women and children escaping domestic violence, young people and families on low incomes who are battling to make ends meet, people living with a disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, seniors, and recently arrived migrants and refugees are also more heavily represented among those who need housing assistance, and I will come to the particular services geared to supporting those groups.
For some, the factors behind their homelessness are compounded by other complex issues such as mental illness, drug and alcohol misuse, intergenerational homelessness, long-term unemployment, poverty and chronic illness. Those experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage can find it incredibly difficult to exit what is a vicious cycle. They do, however, receive multiple layers of support from our homelessness services.
Another finding of ROGS was that public housing in the ACT is more effectively targeted at low income households than in any other jurisdiction: 98.9 per cent through our priority housing process. Priority housing status is granted for those applicants who demonstrate the most urgent and critical need for public housing, as determined by a multi-disciplinary panel skilled in assessing complex needs. In 2013-14 over 97 per cent of new allocations were from the priority and high needs housing categories. Identifying and placing those who have greatest need for our housing is a difficult but vital task, and I have seen the work of the multi-disciplinary panel firsthand. Some of the key factors considered in assessing eligibility for priority housing reflect the key groups that I have mentioned.
Sadly, domestic violence continues to be the main cause of homelessness among women in our community and is the largest cause of homelessness nationally. In 2013-14 ACT domestic violence services in the ACT supported more than 500 women. In the same year just over $4 million was allocated to eight community sector organisations to provide specialised domestic violence support, including immediate crisis assistance, crisis accommodation, trauma counselling and support for women in the judicial process.
While we welcome the greater profile of the domestic violence issue on the national agenda, tackling its cause will be a generational effort, during which we must
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