CORONAVIRUS —
AT-RISK YOUTH
477. Ms
M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Community Services:
I
refer to the Department of Communities' presentation titled ''Impact
of COVID-19 on the WA community (Youth)'' dated 29 May 2020, and specifically the statement that for close to a year
the south west, great southern and wheatbelt have all had close to zero
available youth crisis beds.
(1) Does the
minister agree that the economic impacts of COVID-19 facing our state and
nation will see more people fall into homelessness?
(2) Will the
government fund more youth crisis beds in regional Western Australia in light
of growing demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Ms S.F.
McGURK replied:
(1)–(2) One of the very challenging responsibilities that
I have as a minister is to deal with homelessness throughout the state.
Anyone who has been involved in this policy area, or even thinks about it for
more than a minute, understands that this is a complex area to deal with.
Often, it is a coming together of poor economic circumstances as well as personal circumstances, many of which are many
years in the making. Overcoming the challenges to homelessness can be
very difficult. No area is more tragic than youth at risk and those young
people who are needing emergency supports, particularly those who are at risk
of homelessness.
I understand the concerns of many
regional members when they see high levels of youth unemployment that we are
seeing around the country, including what we face in WA. It has been widely
commented that it is an area of concern for us, but we are not alone in that
challenge. Making sure that we have a good evidence
base on which to draw when we consider our response is really important. Making
sure that we prioritise any additional spends we are able to secure is
also really important. That is why we took the better part of a year to
develop, with the community services sector, a strategic approach to
homelessness. In fact, I was taunted in this
chamber on more than one occasion because we took so long to partner with the
community services sector and the services sector, which knows that work and
does that work every day.
We drew on the work of the University
of Western Australia's Centre for Social Impact, which undertook a good analysis of the most up-to-date information
not only of where homelessness is presenting throughout the state, but also what the evidence is showing
us around the world. The result of that work was ''All Paths Lead
to a Home: Western Australia's 10-Year Strategy on Homelessness 2020–2030'',
and we backed up the homelessness strategy with a $72 million funding
commitment in December last year. In fact, we announced recently in Bunbury
that we would bring forward some of the spending from that commitment so that we can start to implement the Housing
First approach to the strategy, which is really the cornerstone of the
strategy—that is, permanent accommodation for people, the right sorts
of supports, and continuing to work with those people to keep them in
accommodation. The international evidence is that is our best chance of giving
people the best hope in life and overcoming their homelessness.
I will make two comments about youth
homelessness. The first is that we have some good models in Western Australia
through Foyer Oxford, for instance. If we give people support earlier, we are
in a good position to steer them away from an ongoing life of welfare
dependency and disadvantage. There is a very good
success rate through Foyer Oxford. The state government put extra money into
Foyer Oxford late last year, during
Homelessness Week, to help support that model. The second comment I make is
that jobs are the cornerstone of any
good recovery. That is why jobs have continued to be a key mantra of this
government since coming to office in 2017. There is no doubt that the
COVID-19 pandemic is providing particular challenges to ongoing jobs. We heard
today about the investment in roads being facilitated by the Minister for
Transport. Planning reforms will free up opportunities for local builds to
actually take place and get people employed on the ground, which will help
stimulate employment.
I am sorry, member for Moore, if you
find this a little tedious, but I am sure that at-risk youth and youth unemployment are of concern to most members. My
point is that jobs are crucial and economic stimulation, for direct
employment either in roads or in construction, is important for the flow-on
industries that come from healthy regional economies. Having a good
evidence-based approach to our homelessness strategy is also a priority for
this government.
The SPEAKER: Can I remind
ministers to make their answers quicker. We are battling to finish question
time by 3.00 pm today, like we did yesterday.