"Meet your Colleague" Presentation by Kathryn Mandla of the Evidence & Planning Branch, Housing & Homelessness Division, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services & Indigenous Affairs

1. Australia’s
Response to
Homelessness
Kathryn Mandla
Evidence and Planning
Housing and Homelessness

2. Australia’s definition of
Homelessness
Primary homelessness is experienced by people
without conventional accommodation (e.g. sleeping
rough or in improvised dwellings).
Secondary homelessness is experienced by
people who frequently move from one temporary
shelter to another (e.g. emergency accommodation,
youth refuges, "couch surfing").
Tertiary homelessness is experienced by people
staying in accommodation that falls below minimum
community standards (e.g. boarding housing and
caravan parks).
Chamberlain and MacKenzie (2003)
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3. Homelessness in Australia
- statistics
• 104,676 estimated homeless in Australia
• Rate: 53 per 10,000 people
• 16% were sleeping rough
• 19% in supported accommodation (SAAP)
• 45% staying with friends and family
• 56% were male
• 21% aged from 12-18 years
• 9% Indigenous (2.4% of general population)
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4. Australian Homelessness Services
204,900 supported in 2008-09 across Australia
Main reasons for support:
• domestic/family violence 22% (49% in support
periods for women and children)
• relationship/family breakdown 10%
• other financial difficulty 8%
Main type of support
• General support/advocacy (77%)
• personal support (57%)
• housing/accommodation (56%)
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5. Roles and responsibilities
– Australian Government
• leadership for national housing and homelessness
policy
• income support and rental subsidies
• immigration and settlement policy and programs
• finance sector regulations and Commonwealth
taxation settings that influence housing affordability;
• competition policy relating to housing and buildings;
• provision of national infrastructure;
• Housing data and coordination of homelessness
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data.

6. Roles and responsibilities – States and Territories
• leadership for housing and homelessness policy
• housing and homelessness services, administration and delivery
• housing for Indigenous people, including remote areas
• land use, supply and urban planning and development policy
• Housing financial support and services for renters/ home buyers
• Housing-related taxes/charges that influence housing affordability
• infrastructure policy and services - residential development
• tenancy and not-for-profit housing sector legislation and regulation
• collection and publication of data
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7. Roles and responsibilities
– Local Government
• building approval processes
• local urban planning and development approval
processes
• rates and charges that influence housing affordability.
• Some councils may provide leadership, policy,
programs and services.
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8. To combat homelessness, the Australian
Government released
The Road Home: A National Approach to
Reducing Homelessness in 2008
which commits to two 2020 Targets
• Halve homelessness by 2020
• Offer supported accommodation to all rough sleepers who
need it by 2020
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9. The White Paper outlined three strategies for
addressing homelessness
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10. National Agreements
To enable the Australian Government to achieve its
targets and strategies, it entered into the following
agreements with state and territory governments:
• National Affordable Housing Agreement
• National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness
• National Partnership Agreement on Social Housing
• National Partnership Agreement on Remote
Indigenous Housing
• Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan
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11. National Affordable Housing Agreement
Signed 30 November 2008
Aspirational objective that all Australians have access to affordable, safe and sustainable
housing that contributes to social and economic participation
National Partnership National Partnership National Partnership
Agreement on Agreement on Remote Agreement on Social
Homelessness Indigenous Housing Housing
(5 years) (2 years) (2 years)
Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan
Signed 5 February 2009
Designed to stimulate the economy and support initiatives agreed in previous
National Partnerships
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12. National Affordable
Housing Agreement
• Commenced January 2009
• $6.2 billion worth of housing
assistance to low and middle
income Australians over 5 years
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13. National Affordable Housing Agreement
• Australians have access to affordable, safe and sustainable
housing that contributes to social and economic participation
• Improved integration and coordination of assistance to people who
are homeless or at risk of homelessness
• Social housing improvements to reduce concentrations of
disadvantage and improve efficiency
• Improved access by Indigenous people to mainstream housing and
home ownership
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14. Nation Building Plan – Economic Stimulus
• Social Housing Initiative
• Will deliver construction of over 19,300 new social housing
dwellings
• Approximately 80,000 repair and maintenance projects
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15. National Partnership on
Remote Indigenous Housing
• Will deliver construction of over 4,200 new
dwellings
• Approximately 4,800 repair and maintenance
projects
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16. National Partnership Agreement on
Homelessness
• $1.1 billion in funding over 5 years from 1 July 2009
States and territories will deliver:
• Implementation of A Place to Call Home
• Street to home initiatives for chronic homeless people
• Tenancy support for private and public tenants (advocacy, financial
counselling and referral services to help people sustain their
tenancies)
• Assistance for people leaving child protection, jail and health
facilities, to access and maintain stable, affordable housing.
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17. National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness
• People who are homeless or at risk of homelessness achieve
sustainable housing and social inclusion
• prevention and early intervention to stop people becoming homeless
• breaking the cycle of homelessness and
• improving and expanding the service response to homelessness.
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18. Homelessness
– Performance Reporting
• The agreement is supported by a performance
reporting framework:
• Targets
• Performance indicators
• Data development and data collections
• State and Territory Implementation Plans and
annual reports
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19. Homelessness Governance Arrangements in Australia
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20. Homelessness – Research Agenda
$11.4 million
includes:
• National Homelessness Research Partnership
Agreements $4.1 million
• National Homelessness Research Projects $1.4
million
• Longitudinal Study of Australians Vulnerable to
Homelessness $5 million
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21. Interim targets for 2013
Overall rate of Primary
Homelessness is Homelessness
reduced by 20% rate is reduced
by 25%
People seeking
specialist
homelessness
services more than
three times in 12
months
reduced by 25%
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22. The Homelessness assistance system in Australia
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23. The linkages and interfaces between service
providers needs to be coordinated and meet the
individual needs of homeless people
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24. Each person’s experience of homelessness is different and can
be caused by a range of factors that can change over time
Secondary
Not Homeless Tertiary Homelessness Homelessness Primary Homelessness
Staying in
boarding
Domestic house
violence
Living with
partner with
ck in
e ba
Mov er
n
part
rm Living in
f ha private
S el rental
Living
with Obt
ain
partner l eas
e Living in
Dome
st
park
violen ic
ce
Living in Staying in
ital
hospital Exit hosp refuge
Tertiary Homelessness: Insecure Secondary Homelessness: Temporary Primary Homelessness: Sleeping rough or in
accommodation such as boarding accommodation such as a crisis centre or couch an improvised dwelling
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houses or caravan parks surfing

25. Kathryn Mandla
Phone 61-2-6132 1560
Kathryn.Mandla@fahcsia.gov.au
http://www.fahcsia.gov.au
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