HOMELESSNESS — BOORLOO BIDEE MIA SERVICE
452. Ms C.M. ROWE to the Minister for Homelessness:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's unprecedented commitment to
reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness. Can the
minister outline to the house how the groundbreaking first-of-its-kind Boorloo
Bidee Mia facility in Perth is delivering life-changing support to vulnerable Western
Australians?
Mr J.N. CAREY
replied:
I thank the member for her question.
Boorloo Bidee Mia is an incredible
story. Last week, as part of Homelessness Week, I attended the accommodation
service to note an important milestone—that is, a year since its
operation. I am very pleased to report that it is at near capacity, with 64 of
the 66 rooms now filled with people who were rough sleeping who have been
referred there. It is part of a bigger picture and bigger
investment. We are investing $225 million in this financial year in homelessness
support and programs. We are trying to use every lever we can, including
innovative models like Boorloo Bidee Mia. Why is it so special? It is because
for the first time we have had an Aboriginal-controlled organisation that has
had oversight to provide culturally appropriate accommodation that is actually
suited to providing intense wraparound support services. The referrals have
been coming through from our boosted outreach homeless and emergency
accommodation response team—HEART. We also boosted that to seven days a
week. This model is working. It is working very well and we are seeing people
transition into accommodation. We also know that the people going there do
suffer, have deep trauma, and may have become institutionalised by living on the
street. I want to give a shout-out to one of the residents I met—it was
Dwayne—who told his story to the media last week. He had been in BBM
for five months. He acknowledged that it had been a major change for his life,
and he was able again to see his children. This is one of the incredible
success stories. It might not make sexy headlines, but this is changing people's
lives. I want to acknowledge the former minister who had responsibility, Simone
McGurk, for persisting with this vision. I note that while we sought to make
this model work, it was relentlessly attacked by the opposition. They said at
every opportunity: fill it overnight and ignore all the key advice that said
that for the model to work, we had to do it over a period of time. That is what
Hon Steve Martin said very clearly on the record. This is my point about
members of the opposition when it comes to homelessness: they are lazy and do
not listen to the advice from the sector. They could not even be bothered, out
of 15 members, to send one to the most critical Mission Australia Christmas
lunch. Not one out of the 15 could be bothered to go. That is how lazy this
opposition is and why they have no credibility with the homelessness sector. I want
to give a big shout-out to Daniel Morrison and the Wungening team, and all the
staff at Boorloo Bidee Mia. Thank you for persisting; thank you for not losing
confidence and hope when the opposition threw every attack at you. We applaud
you and thank you for your efforts. This model is a great success to their
leadership and their efforts.