HOMELESSNESS
876. Mr
C.J. TALLENTIRE to the Minister for Community Services:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's unprecedented investment in addressing homelessness,
particularly as Western Australia recovers from the economic impacts of
COVID-19. Can the minister outline to the house the McGowan Labor government's
response in helping those experiencing homelessness to transition into
long-term and secure accommodation, and can the minister advise the house how
this response compares with the response in the rest of the country?
Ms S.F.
McGURK replied:
I can do that. I can address those
issues, and I thank the member very much for the question. I know that people
across Western Australia, and particularly in regional centres—wherever
they see people sleeping rough—are concerned about homelessness, but I want
them to understand that we take this issue seriously. We are investing in an evidence-based
response to make sure that we are not only dealing with this emergency crisis
situation, but also investing in long-term outcomes for those very vulnerable
people. The Housing First Homelessness Initiative now has a coordinating
organisation in Ruah Community Services, and Ruah is offering training and
engaging with communities about their responses to rough sleeping. It is
running its connections days. I was in Geraldton recently and I know that that
has occurred there, and that Bunbury has its connections day coming up.
Lotterywest has allocated $18 million to homelessness services from its
COVID-19 relief fund to provide immediate responses, and the state government
has provided $8.2 million in recovery funding for a range of different services,
including the mental health and clinical
outreach team advocated by the Minister for Mental Health, Foyer Oxford, and
Tom Fisher House and Passages, which are run by the St Vincent de Paul
Society. Of course, the housing minister is
progressing over $900 million in housing developments and works, a huge
investment, and that will support people sleeping rough. Most
importantly, we are rolling out new initiatives that, as I said, global
evidence tells us works—not simply bandaid responses that plunge vulnerable
people into a cycle of temporary arrangements. We are providing permanent homes
and the wraparound supports to help people stay in those homes.
But, Mr Speaker, do not
just take my word for it. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute last
week released a peer-reviewed research paper analysing what governments in
Australia had done to respond to housing and homelessness during COVID-19. That report states very clearly
through a very helpful table that WA implemented 17 housing and homelessness
responses during COVID-19, which was more than any other state government in
Australia or the federal government. The table also identified that WA invested
over $662 million in those 17 initiatives,
which is more than New South Wales, a state with three times our population,
and only the Victorian and federal governments outspent WA.
There
is clear evidence that we are committing not only good policy grunt to this
significant problem, but that we are funding it as well—putting
the resources behind that. There is work to be done. We are partnering in a meaningful
way with the community sector, which is now
on the ground working with those most vulnerable Western Australians on
an evidence-based response that will deliver real outcomes to them.