Homelessness in Echuca Moama
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LC LSIC Inquiry into Homelessness Submission 127 Inquiry into Homelessness in Victoria Ms Nina O'Brien Organisation Name:Committee for Echuca Moama Your position or role: CEO SURVEY QUESTIONS Drag the statements below to reorder them. In order of priority, please rank the themes you believe are most important for this inquiry into homelessness to consider:: Public housing,Services,Family violence,Rough sleeping,Indigenous people,Housing affordability,Mental health,Employment What best describes your interest in our Inquiry? (select all that apply) : An advocacy body Are there any additional themes we should consider? Cross-border government planning considerations for communities like Echuca Moama YOUR SUBMISSION Submission: Please find attached a letter of Correspondence outlining our primary concerns relating to Homelessness in the Echuca Moama region, in addition to a Monash University report commissioned by the Committee for Echuca Moama, published May 2017, but still pertinent at present. Do you have any additional comments or suggestions?: Thank-you for the opportunity to submit this to government for consideration. FILE ATTACHMENTS File1: 5e30e1383e21f-C4EM_Homelessness_VicGovParlEnqu_28Jan2020.docx File2: 5e30e1383ef53-Echuca Moama Homelessness FULL Report Final MAY.pdf File3: Signature: Nina O'Brien 1 of 34 LC LSIC Inquiry into Homelessness Submission 127 28 January 2020 Ms. Fiona Patten MP Chairperson Legislative Council, Legal and Social Issues Committee Parliament of Victoria Parliament House, Spring Street EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 Dear Ms. Patten, Re: Inquiry into Homelessness in Victoria On behalf of our diverse industry-based members; The Committee for Echuca Moama (C4EM) are pleased to submit the following feedback in relation to the complex nature of homelessness in Echuca Moama. C4EM have been concerned about and have advocated for the issues surrounding homelessness in Echuca Moama since our inception in 2011. In mid to late 2015; C4EM embarked upon a research project to quantify the amount of homelessness in the local region. The Monash University report is attached. In short; it found a localized data set to quantify the size and nature of local homelessness issue was basically impossible to produce. This was due to many factors such as community sector service providers protecting their data sources to protect funding streams, community organisations don’t have platforms or capacity to collect and analyse data, homeless people don’t have avenues to contribute data, and that government data does not drill down into very specific areas and that what data is collected when released, is old and again does not address the transient nature of the homeless. Since that time; a variety of community endeavors have attempted to address these issues through a dedicated network of service providers and local charities. The issue remains that while many people have a role to play, no singular organisation takes the lead to address both the short- and long-term issues that we still experience. This results in: • limited ability by local community organisations to seek funding, or undertake advocacy to address the need without solid data, • services and support that are fragmented and very different depending on where the person seeking support is located by virtue of our cross-border, dual state, one community makeup of the Echuca Moama region, • Short term fixes while the long-term issues remain. While local collaboration between service providers is positive; but remain highly limited in their ability to support people due to limited budgets, strict eligibility criteria, reliance on volunteers, and lack of suitable housing stock to place people into. Anecdotally we are aware of some funding allocations that do not meet the target recipients given the variable capacity of local organisations to deliver the services. 2 of 34 LC LSIC Inquiry into Homelessness Submission 127 Changing scale and nature of Homelessness According to the ABS Census of Population and Housing: Estimating homelessness, 2011 to 2016 Comparison (Published in March 2018) the number of homeless people number: 2011 2016 # increase % increase Campaspe (S) 49 121 72 147% Murray (A) 10 0 -10 Total People 67 139 72 147% Anecdotally; there are far more than 0 people who are homeless in the Murray (Moama) region; indicating that quality of data collection, remains a significant issue in quantifying the nature of the issue. Social, economic and policy factors that impact on homelessness • Rising rent of 3% in past year alone. Median private unit rent is $280 per week. Given Newstart for a single person is $279.50 per week; this often means people get stuck in short-term public housing and find it impossible to transition to the local private market. • Access to suitable housing stock in the private market. The vacancy rate in Echuca is 1.01% and 0.59% in the Campaspe region compared to 1.51% in Victoria. Anecdotally; safe and appropriate housing stock for older women remains a significant gap. • Anecdotally; we understand that primary homeless people in Echuca are waiting years for public housing. • There is no provision to support homeless people on code-red days in the local region. Recently the limited short-term charity-based support that was available was shut due to the increased risk to volunteers. In Echuca, ‘rough-sleepers’ mostly camp in the high fire prone area along the River. Suggestions for policies and practices from all levels of government that will make a difference in delivering services to the homeless. • Share data across government, NGO’s and charities so we can better understand the nature of the issue, • Undertake a local place-based approach to planning for effective delivery of services and infrastructure, • Work collaboratively across state and local governments in NSW and Victoria to plan services and infrastructure that suit cross-border communities, 3 of 34 LC LSIC Inquiry into Homelessness Submission 127 Most importantly, we want to see: 1. A review of program funding effectiveness to ensure it is being utilised to meet the short- term needs of homeless people in the Echuca region 2. A variety of new housing stock being built by government funded NGO’s, with 3. Interlinked services that support people to sustain their tenancies such as mental health, transport, employment, training, parenting, and community engagement. 4. Governments working in partnership with community to achieve local solutions. Sincerely, Nina O’Brien CEO Committee for Echuca Moama Subscribe to the E-News: http://eepurl.com/gi2bNX Follow us on socials: @c4echucamoama Quick snapshot of the Committee for Echuca Moama (C4EM): • C4EM collaborate on, advocate for, and lead initiatives that will make Echuca Moama a more connected, prosperous and vibrant regional centre. • We are independent, member funded and not politically aligned. • We have a cross-border, two-towns / one-community remit covering Echuca (situated in Victoria) and Moama (situated in NSW). • We undertake a wide range of projects and initiatives to: o facilitate economic growth, o advocate for the development of infrastructure, and o build livability. 4 of 34 LC LSIC Inquiry into Homelessness Submission 127 Homelessness in Echuca Moama – Full Report Funded by Committee for Echuca Moama Dr Steven Roberts, Ms Cathy Waite, A/ Prof Dharma Arunachalam School of Social Sciences, Monash University May, 2017 5 of 34 LC LSIC Inquiry into Homelessness Submission 127 Homelessness in Echuca Moama- Full report; Roberts et al. 2017 Introduction The social and economic consequences of homelessness are wide ranging and profoundly damaging for individuals, families, communities and societies. Understanding, preventing and ameliorating the issue is an area of increasing local, national and international policy focus. Almost a decade ago, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd released the Homelessness White Paper ‘The Road Home: A national approach to reducing homelessness’, referring to Australia’s homelessness crisis as a “national obscenity”. Whilst this led to homelessness being featured on the national agenda, Australia will not meet the White Paper’s admirable ambitions of halving the numbers of people experiencing homelessness and offering supported accommodation to all rough sleepers by 2020. Increasing unemployment (especially youth unemployment) rates during, and in the aftermath of the global financial downturn, alongside escalating costs of housing in both the private rental and home buyers’ markets, have combined to ensure that homelessness is an even more pressing issue. Large increases in the numbers of people accessing funded support nationally, but also increasing numbers of people who are turned away by support services, as documented in recent media coverage, attest to this. Another part of this backdrop has been the consistent message that data and evidence are crucial to overcoming the homelessness crisis. Indeed, the 2008 White Paper specifically noted that ‘Good evidence is required to direct the response to homelessness and to assess the effectiveness of interventions’, while The Chair of Homelessness Australia, Jenny Smith, talking in the Age on April 17th 2017, pointed to the significance of ‘extending evidenced based responses’. Within this context, this report presents the salient findings of the commissioned research project related to homelessness in the Echuca Moama area. Fuller details of the findings and the methods undertaken for the research can be found in the Final Report. Specifically