Extract from The Guardian
Homelessness
organisations have called on the federal government to agree to extend
and increase a source of $115m a year in funding for their services,
faced with the prospect it will be cut off from 1 July.
The organisations have made the demand before a meeting of housing and homelessness ministers in Sydney on Friday.
Under the national partnership agreement on homelessness (NPAH) the federal government provides $115m a year in homelessness funding, matched by state and territory governments.
The Coalition committed to fund it from June 2015 to June 2017, but homelessness groups are increasingly alarmed there has been no commitment to extend beyond then.
The Council to Homeless Persons said homelessness was on the rise, as measured by 255,000 people who sought assistance last year, up from 236,000.
NPAH funding makes up a third of the sector’s budget, and the council estimates the number turned away will leap from 329 to 440 people a day if it is not extended.
The chief executive of the council, Jenny Smith, told Guardian Australia the NPAH had been frozen at $115m a year, in effect losing $10m of its value since 2013-14 because it is not indexed.
“It’s unfathomable that, when we’re seeing homelessness grow before our eyes … [and] it’s out of control, why you’d take away the base or not even the protect the base funding,” she said.
Smith said homeless services were “groaning under the weight of demand”, particularly challenged by the low supply of affordable housing, which meant services had to help people for longer periods.
Asked about the possibility the NPAH could be rolled over one year at a time, as occurred in previous years, Smith said there “seems to be some assumption that supporting people is a business you can turn on and off”.
“Recruitment of staff and developing services capacity to support people isn’t something you can just turn on and off,” she said.
Smith cited the example of a woman with preschool-age children escaping family violence, who would need support over a “considerable period” from crisis accommodation and into more permanent accommodation with ongoing support.
The Council to Homeless Persons wants the NPAH to be rolled over for a minimum of five years, and to be indexed.
Smith also called for changes to boost affordable housing, including inclusionary zoning, more social housing and changes to taxation around capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing.
The executive officer of National Shelter, Adrian Pisarski, said funding cliffs such as the looming cutoff of NPAH funding forced its members, who provide accommodation services, to make staff redundant and wind down services.
Projects funded through NPAH are of particular value because they are “on the cutting edge of reform”, he said, including projects that link young people’s accommodation to education and training and include wrap-around services.
Pisarski said the federal and state governments needed to develop an affordable housing supply strategy.
A spokeswoman for the social services minister, Christian Porter, said “a process is under way to consider NPAH funding beyond 2017”.
She said the outcome of the ministers’ meeting on Friday “will inform the report back to [the Council of Australia Governments] on reforms to housing and homelessness services that is due at the end of this year.
“Future homelessness funding arrangements will be considered in this context.”
The spokeswoman said that of the $1.3bn provided under the national affordable housing agreement, there was $275m for homelessness services. The federal government also provided $4.4bn in rental assistance.
Labor’s housing and homelessness spokesman, Doug Cameron, said the ministers’ meeting would have failed if it did not commit to extend the NPAH funding and make “decisions that will lead directly to an increase in the supply of affordable and social housing”.
Cameron said there was “no evidence” the $10bn spent by federal and state governments on housing and homelessness was increasing the supply of affordable and social housing. “It is certainly not providing homes for homeless people.”
The organisations have made the demand before a meeting of housing and homelessness ministers in Sydney on Friday.
Under the national partnership agreement on homelessness (NPAH) the federal government provides $115m a year in homelessness funding, matched by state and territory governments.
The Coalition committed to fund it from June 2015 to June 2017, but homelessness groups are increasingly alarmed there has been no commitment to extend beyond then.
The Council to Homeless Persons said homelessness was on the rise, as measured by 255,000 people who sought assistance last year, up from 236,000.
NPAH funding makes up a third of the sector’s budget, and the council estimates the number turned away will leap from 329 to 440 people a day if it is not extended.
The chief executive of the council, Jenny Smith, told Guardian Australia the NPAH had been frozen at $115m a year, in effect losing $10m of its value since 2013-14 because it is not indexed.
“It’s unfathomable that, when we’re seeing homelessness grow before our eyes … [and] it’s out of control, why you’d take away the base or not even the protect the base funding,” she said.
Smith said homeless services were “groaning under the weight of demand”, particularly challenged by the low supply of affordable housing, which meant services had to help people for longer periods.
Asked about the possibility the NPAH could be rolled over one year at a time, as occurred in previous years, Smith said there “seems to be some assumption that supporting people is a business you can turn on and off”.
“Recruitment of staff and developing services capacity to support people isn’t something you can just turn on and off,” she said.
Smith cited the example of a woman with preschool-age children escaping family violence, who would need support over a “considerable period” from crisis accommodation and into more permanent accommodation with ongoing support.
The Council to Homeless Persons wants the NPAH to be rolled over for a minimum of five years, and to be indexed.
Smith also called for changes to boost affordable housing, including inclusionary zoning, more social housing and changes to taxation around capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing.
The executive officer of National Shelter, Adrian Pisarski, said funding cliffs such as the looming cutoff of NPAH funding forced its members, who provide accommodation services, to make staff redundant and wind down services.
Projects funded through NPAH are of particular value because they are “on the cutting edge of reform”, he said, including projects that link young people’s accommodation to education and training and include wrap-around services.
Pisarski said the federal and state governments needed to develop an affordable housing supply strategy.
A spokeswoman for the social services minister, Christian Porter, said “a process is under way to consider NPAH funding beyond 2017”.
She said the outcome of the ministers’ meeting on Friday “will inform the report back to [the Council of Australia Governments] on reforms to housing and homelessness services that is due at the end of this year.
“Future homelessness funding arrangements will be considered in this context.”
The spokeswoman said that of the $1.3bn provided under the national affordable housing agreement, there was $275m for homelessness services. The federal government also provided $4.4bn in rental assistance.
Labor’s housing and homelessness spokesman, Doug Cameron, said the ministers’ meeting would have failed if it did not commit to extend the NPAH funding and make “decisions that will lead directly to an increase in the supply of affordable and social housing”.
Cameron said there was “no evidence” the $10bn spent by federal and state governments on housing and homelessness was increasing the supply of affordable and social housing. “It is certainly not providing homes for homeless people.”
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