Page 1917 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 6 June 2017
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MS LE COUTEUR: To your knowledge, how many people are sleeping in cars, and what data does the government collect on unmet demand for supported accommodation services and where people have been living immediately prior to seeking supported accommodation services?
MS BERRY: Again, if Ms Le Couteur is aware of anybody who is sleeping in cars then I strongly urge her to put them in touch with Housing ACT, so that we can make sure that they are supported. The ACT government also works very closely with and provides funding assistance to St Vincent de Paul’s night patrol and street to home program, which provides support for people who are sleeping rough. I get regular updates from St Vincent de Paul on the number of people who are sleeping rough in the ACT and the kinds of support that they are getting. Currently, I believe the number is around 30 individuals who are sleeping rough, which is consistent with the number of people who have been sleeping rough in the ACT for a number of years now. But I am assured by organisations like St Vincent de Paul that they are being provided with support regularly. They regularly check in on these individuals and, if they can support these individuals into accommodation, they do that through Housing ACT or through other housing support services.
MR PARTON: Minister, how many people have been turned away from homelessness services in the past year, according to the most recent data?
MS BERRY: I caught the first part: how many people have been turned away from—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Parton, can you repeat the question please?
MR PARTON: How many people would have been turned away from homelessness services in the past year, according to the most recent data?
MS BERRY: I would have to get that information to the Assembly. What I can say is that the ACT invests a lot of money in providing support to homelessness services so that they can support people in the ACT, particularly those who are experiencing or escaping domestic and family violence. Those people make up around 30 per cent of applications for housing in the ACT. We make sure that support for those individuals, with housing or accommodation through Housing ACT, is a priority.
That priority is acknowledged across the country and it is a priority that is acknowledged as part of a national partnership on housing. It is important to ensure and to acknowledge that this is an issue that the ACT government does not face alone. This is a cross-border issue that the whole country is working towards. The challenge that faces us is ensuring that people are supported into housing through government-provided housing or through housing from community support organisations; or that they can be housed in private rentals for themselves or then find ways for them to get into accommodation of their own.
All of those are challenges that the whole country faces. Housing and homelessness ministers are meeting very soon to continue to talk about ways that we can resolve that issue.
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