Albury CLSD Minutes 26 August 2020, 1:30-3:30, via video conference
Present: Winnecke Baker (Legal Aid NSW), Simon Crase (CLSD Coordinator, UMFC/HRCLS), Kerry Wright (Legal Aid NSW WDO Team), Julie Maron (Legal Aid NSW), Sue Beddowes (Interreach Albury), Jesmine Coromandel (Manager, WDVCAS), Michelle Conroy (One Door Family and Carer Mental Health Program), Susan Morris (One Door Family and Carer Mental Health Program), Diane Small (Albury City Council), Scott Boyle (Anglicare Financial Counselling), Heidi Bradbrun (Justice Conect), Nicole Stack (Legal Aid WDO Team), Julie Bye (EWON), Britt Cooksey (Amaranth Foundation Corowa), Natalie Neumann (Legal Aid NSW), Diana Elliot (Mirambeena Community Centre), Kim Andersen (Centacare South West NSW), Navinesh Nand (Legal Aid NSW), Stacey Telford (Safety Action Meeting Coordinator), Jenny Rawlings (Department of Communities and Justice – Housing), Nicole Dwyer (SIC Legal Aid NSW Riverina/Murray), Andrea Georgiou (HRCLS) Apologies: Jenny Ryder (Amaranth Foundation)
Agenda Item Discussion Action/Responsibility/Time 1. Welcome, Simon acknowledged the respective Aboriginal lands that partners called in from today and welcomed purpose & everyone to the meeting. acknowledgement 2. Service check-in Susan Morris and Michelle Conroy – One Door Family and Carer Mental Health Susan: [email protected] 0488 288 707 (mon-wed) Michelle: 0481 010 728 [email protected] (tues, wed, thurs) FREE service that people can engage with as many times as they need to. Support groups are available in Albury, Corowa and Deniliquin. Both mostly working from home, but Michelle is getting back on the road.
Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 1
Nicole Stack and Kerry Wright – Legal Aid WDO team 4228 8299 or [email protected] Cover the NSW South Coast and Riverina/Murray. Staff work with clients as well as WDO sponsors. Please get in touch if your service would like to know more about becoming a WDO sponsor! Difficulty paying a debt? Check out all of the options and support available from Revenue NSW HERE. Kim – Centrecare South West NSW 0428 240 971 Family and relationships practitioner providing counselling and case management. Support is available to ALL family members. Sessions are available in-person for clients with complex needs. The service is seeing more complex cases. Increased drug use and family violence as a result of the border closure. Diane Small –Safety Officer Albury City Council [email protected] 0419 995 963 Council has a Covid-19 Community Response Engagement Team that meets weekly on Thursdays. This group can escalate issues with the Federal Government, Cross Border Commissioner and government Ministers. Please contact Council about issues that your services need to be addressed. Example: Council was able to advocate for a policy change relating to DV victims fleeing across the border so that they don’t need to tell/re-tell their story to whoever is stationed at the border. Natalie – Community Legal Education Team, Legal Aid NSW Law for community workers program The latest alert is available HERE Robodebt and EWON webinars 9 September 2020. Register HERE 2 new resources for young people: what are my legal rights? and Ripped Off? Rights about unpaid wages and work entitlements Scott Boyle – student counsellor with Anglicare Financial counsellors have contacts at Centrelink if people need help connecting with a social worker. New worker will start thanks to bushfire funding that Anglicare has received. Diana Elliot – Caseworker Mirambeena Community Centre [email protected] Settlement Engagement Transition Program (SETS) working with people from refugee backgrounds who are in their second stage of settlement for up to 5 years. Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 2
Navinesh Nand – Civil Law Solicitor Albury Legal Aid All advice available via phone by booking into an advice clinic on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Britt Cooksey – Amaranth Amaranth specialises in grief, loss and trauma, including palliative care as well as NDIS case management. Julie Maron and Nicole Dwyer – Legal Aid Riverina Murray All services in the civil, crime and family practices are still available via telephone. 3. Guest Speakers Suzanne Beddowes – Intereach Albury Coordinator – Please contact Suzanne or Simon Crase if you would like COVID Community Day project proposal more information about this The idea is to hold a series of online talks and Q+As with specialist services for community workers project and to be involved. who are working with vulnerable target groups in the Albury community. Ideally these will be recorded
to reach the widest possible audience. Could hold 1 talk a week for 5 weeks.
Target groups are services working with: - People reliant on Centrelink, especially single parent families - first-time unemployed and people who have lost their businesses
- carers - people experiencing domestic and family violence.
Specialist services could include: - Financial counsellors (budgeting strategies and how to manage when payments are reduced) - DFV workers - Mental Health practitioners - Lawyers Please let Heidi know if you Speed networking was raised as an idea for the future once social distancing restrictions have eased. are happy for the lawyers Heidi Bradburn - Justice Connect – Telehealth Seniors Law Project involved in this project to refer clients to your service for help - New service has started with Murrumbidgee LHD. It is an extension of the Health Justice with other issues and let Heidi Partnership between Justice Connect and St Vincent’s Health Network that started in 2017 and know if you are happy for the funded by the Attorney General. lawyers to make a warm - The focus of the work is to deal with any legal issue impacting older people and combat elder referral directly. abuse. The service does not practice criminal or family law. Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 3
- Eligibility: people over 65 and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people over 50. Heidi Bradbrun Justice - Referrals happen via health clinicians in the Murrumbidgee LHD and staff working in aged care Connect 0437 275 083 facilities run by the LHD. heidi.bradbrun@justiceconnec - Justice Connect trained local health clinicians in how to identify and respond to elder abuse t.org.au and spot legal issues of their clients. - An initial report on the project will be prepared in October/November.
- Support is also available for other clients through the Justice Connect online portal. Particularly for people impacted by COVID-19 and the bushfires.
- Justice Connect is also available to provide advice to not-for-profit organisations!
Jenny Rawlings - Department of Communities & Justice, Senior Client Service Officer – Private Rental Brokerage Service - services provided by DCJ Housing for people moving into private rentals - Works with clients with complex needs (D&A, MH, DV, Corrections) receives referrals from case managers to assist clients into the private rental market. - There are no specific criteria to book an appointment with Jenny. People can book a 1hr
appointment to discuss all aspects of renting and Jenny will look at whether private rental or social housing is the best option for them. - Clients need to be able to search, inspect and apply for properties themselves.
- #1 consideration is that we don’t want to set people up to fail! - TICA: a national database for people who have had a bad tenancy, for example, significant rental arrears. Agents can check for people on TICA and it is almost guaranteed they people won’t get a property if listed. It only lasts for 3 years, even if arrears not paid back in that time. Tenants Advocacy Services can help people to have this removed if they are still on after 3 years. - People being on TICA is not necessarily a deal-breaker, call to discuss circumstances.
DCJ Housing Products to help your clients …
- Bond Loan: $1500 towards the bond of a property; must be paid back over 12 months. Apply online
Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 4
- 2 weeks advance rent: can be applied for on top of a bond loan – this does not need to be
repaid and is generally reserved for people with extenuating circumstances (DV involved or risk of homeless). Apply online. - Agents can only legally ask for 1-week advance rent legally while waiting for bond. Damien found the issue is difficult because clients don’t want to burn bridges. - Tenancy Guarantee (will be re-branded as Bond Extra in June): $1,500 that supports someone’s application. Agents can tap into these funds if there are issues with the tenancy, for example something is broken. Generally, DCJ make people try to apply for up to 5 places before they consider using a Tenancy Guarantee. - Rent Choice Start Safely: for people who are impacted by Family or Domestic Violence, are homeless or at risk of homelessness. DCJ subsidise rent for 3 months for up to 2 years and
apply a $2,000 bond guarantee. It is important to know that this is not crisis response on its own, but it can supplement it. - Rent Choice Youth: still in its trial period. DCJ subsidise rent and there is $2,000 bond
guarantee for young adults aged 16-24. Clients must be willing to study or work or be working towards that. - Rent Choice Transition: this is to support people who have been in public housing transition into a private tenancy. Their rent is subsidised for a period and there is also brokerage assistance. - Rent Choice COVID 19: for clients impacted by COVID-19, for example their tenancy is no longer viable because they have lost work. This is accessed via the Housing application process. Rent can be subsidised for 12 months.
WDVCAS – Manager Murray River WDVCAS Jesmine Coromandel and Stacey Telford, local Safety Action Meeting Coordinator
- Have standardised practices across the Riverina Murray based on the Griffith model.
- Have the contract to manage the WDVCAS for 4 years. - There are 2 DFV specialist workers and 2 Aboriginal focused workers. - Really important for the WDVCAS to be aware of the other services that are available.
- Referrals are received directly from police in the Murray River police district. - The WDVCAS must make 3 attempts to call clients within 5 days; the first time within 24 hours. - Additional role is to provide support for ADVO related mentions – not specifically funded to attend hearings. - It has been difficult to train staff as only 1 staff member can be at court and most training happens on the job. Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 5
- Albury and Deniliquin received $7,000 and $1,000 respectively to upgrade their safe rooms!
SAM Meeting Coordinator – Stacey Telford Murray River Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Services [email protected] [email protected] 02 6046 9480
- The Safety Action Meetings run every 2 weeks. At the meetings information is shared by government and non-government organisations about the clients and actions are agreed upon to mitigate risks. Each client’s safety will be re-assessed at the following meeting.
Julie Bye – Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW Julie please send Scott a list of EAPA providers in the region [email protected] 0448 106 82 and some EWON resources.
- EWON can help people who are having issues with their energy and water providers or who are having trouble paying their bills. - Possible outcomes include: detailed explanation but if there has been an error they can have it corrected, refunds, apology, policy change, systemic changes, feedback/training for staff in the organisation. - Complaints in Albury in the last quarter of last financial year: 72 cases were opened (Federation 13, Edward River 6). - Disconnections in Albury LGA (March 18 – February 19) 1,496 properties for non-payment. Only 7 of those people disconnected contacted EWON! EWON can help with reconnections. - EWON is available to provide training online and can also provide brochures/factsheets. - EAPA Vouchers: St Vincent de Paul have dropped out of this service, but Service NSW do them as well as some community organisations. The fastest option is to go through a community agency that is an EAPA provider … people who book an appointment online can wait 6 weeks for an appointment.
4. Challenges, Impact of border closure – (Albury, Corowa, Deniliquin, Moama, Mulwala) suggestions Nicole Dwyer - Legal Aid has been surprised by the lack of contact from people along the border who need help. - Lots of the issues we see reported are legal issues and Legal Aid NSW and HRCLS can help. - It is really easy to get advice via telephone, please encourage people to call who are having difficulty adjusting to the new rules. Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 6
Andrea Georgiou – HRCLS - HRCLS can help people whose lives have been impacted by the border closure - The closure creates lots of family law issues, particularly related to contact with children. - There are also some issues in the way that the guidelines are being interpreted at the check- point because it is a different person each time.
Permit questions are legal questions! Call your local legal services. Diana Elliott – Refugee CALD point of view - Received funding from DPC in Victoria that has helped VRB to translate all of the border closure and public health order documents. - Services Australia have a van starting tomorrow at Junction Square. Centrelink/Medicare available to help until mid-September.
5. CLSD partnership Albury CLSD Program partnership actions
priorities & • Action Plan – update: actions - Simon has begun mapping services in Deni and the local newspaper is putting together a • Previous actions service guide that should be ready in a few months. • Action Plan and - Contacted Yarkuwa about another wills clinic, this will likely happen next year. projects • CLSD projects: - Cut it Out workshop: launched by the AG on 19 August in Nowra and workshops can now be organised and scheduled. - How to stick to your order brochure: this resource, which was developed by the Albury CLSD partnership has been re-printed and distributed to services in each CLSD region. The CLSD Unit is also currently working with a company to convert the booklet into an animation. 6. Next meeting Wednesday 25 November 2020 – Albury Library Museum (fingers crossed)
Albury CLSD Program Albury Regional Coordinator [email protected] – 0488 792 366 7