Page 2764 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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MR RATTENBURY: If you are going to shout at me, I am not going to stand up.
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, please.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, are you advised, or is the health minister advised, when there is a patient in the emergency room for more than 24 hours? What is the standard response if you are?
MR RATTENBURY: That issue is predominantly dealt with by the CEO of Canberra Health Services. There is a daily recording of those sorts of incidents. The CEO deals with that and I am briefed regularly on how we are going in progressing the pressures on the emergency department but also the pressures on the adult mental health unit.
Homelessness—government policy
MS CODY: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development. Minister, can you update the Assembly on the government’s commitment to strengthening homelessness services in the ACT?
MS BERRY: I thank Ms Cody for the question. Yes, I can update the Assembly. The ACT government is committed to providing more services and support for people in our community who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Through the consultations for the housing strategy, support for these emerging cohorts experiencing homelessness was heard loud and clear, and the need to address the gap in services available to them. This feedback was supported by the cohort study which I released earlier this year, outlining the kinds of supports that these groups need.
To address this, the government committed $6.5 million for more specialist homelessness services in the ACT. I launched the first of these new services, called “next door”, with the YWCA last week. Next door will provide one-on-one support for older women at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Women are far too often in these difficult situations, with low or no superannuation or savings. This service will mean that more women will be provided with the support and services that they need to connect them to safe and secure housing.
MS CODY: Minister, how do these new programs fit into the government’s overall support for Canberrans experiencing or at risk of homelessness?
MS BERRY: The ACT government provides over $24 million a year to organisations supporting people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. These services are tailored to meet the needs of a range of groups of people who are at greater risk of homelessness. Another new service that has been funded by the ACT government and which will be launched soon is a program run by the Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services. This program will assist families from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds who face additional challenges to secure housing, many with federal government restrictions around their ability to work, meaning that they are unable to sustain housing in the private market.
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