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Launch Housing Annual Report 2019

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Launch Housing Annual Report 2019 CONTACT US Launch Housing 68 Oxford Street Collingwood VIC 3066 T (03) 9288 9600 E [email protected] www.launchhousing.org.au @LaunchHousing If you are in crisis call 1800 825 955 2 Annual Report 2018–19 WELCOME By Launch Housing LEAG members Welcome to Launch Housing’s 2018-19 Annual Report from the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG). For us, Launch Housing’s mission to end homelessness We know homelessness in Australia is getting worse. cannot be achieved without valuable insight and guidance We are proud to work in and on the system alongside from people with a lived experience of homelessness. Launch Housing – changing the homelessness sector with impactful, client-centred work, advocacy and Each member of the LEAG’s experience of homelessness innovation. Over the past year, we have broken down is very personal to them. Each of us chose to join the barriers, assisted in improving provision of services LEAG, to advocate alongside Launch Housing and within for people with differing needs, and developed greater the organisation, because we genuinely believe in its knowledge in providing safety and support for clients. mission, as well as its commitment to hearing the voices of those they work for and with. We need to bring more compassion and humanity to solving this problem. To achieve this, we need to include those who have a lived experience of homelessness. THROUGHOUT THIS REPORT ARE The Launch Housing Lived Experience Advisory Group THE FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCES (LEAG) is made up of members broadly representative OF LAUNCH HOUSING’S CLIENTS of the people Launch Housing work with. This includes people from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and AND STAFF, FROM THEIR OWN LGBTIQ communities, parents, survivors of family violence PERSPECTIVE. WE BELIEVE THIS IS and women over 55 years, the country’s fastest growing ONE SMALL BUT IMPORTANT WAY cohort experiencing homelessness. TO FURTHER INCORPORATE THE VOICES OF THOSE WHO ARE IMPACTED MOST. Launch Housing 3 LEAG WORK AND TABLE OF CONTENTS ACHIEVEMENTS Welcome 2 Influencing Launch Housing About Launch Housing 4 • Participated in staff interviews, inductions, Our Work 5 all staff meetings and business planning Peer Support 6 • Reviewed feedback and complaints system Melbourne Street to Home 7 to ensure continuous service improvement • Reviewed and provided feedback on service Alcohol and Other Drugs program 8 delivery training documents Empowering women 9 • Involved in developing draft Launch Housing Intake worker: day in the life 10 Strategy 2020–24 • Consulted on Crisis Accommodation Report Housing is good mental healthcare 12 • Provided input towards an updated Consumer Meet Akemi 13 Participation Strategy Functional zero 14 Changing perceptions New support 15 • Authored articles for Parity Magazine and spoke Tiny homes 16 at Council for Homeless Persons engagements Meet Deborah 17 • Participated in interviews with ABC Radio National, ABC Melbourne and the ABC’s 7.30, as well as Private rental security 18 The Guardian Australia Meet Maya 19 Systems change HomeGround Real Estate 20 • Involved in research for the Royal Commission Meet Felicity 21 into Victoria’s Mental Health System Education First Youth Foyers 22 • Participated in Yarra City Council draft Homelessness Strategy Education Pathways Program 24 • Participated in Southern Homeless Services CEO welcome 26 Network (SHSN) Consumer Participation Working Our Board 27 Group and Rooming House Summit Financials 28 Partners and supporters 35 4 Annual Report 2018–19 ABOUT LAUNCH HOUSING Launch Housing is a community organisation passionately committed to ending homelessness through direct action. We provide high-quality housing, support, education and employment services to thousands of people across 14 sites in metropolitan Melbourne. We also continuously adapt and trial new, scalable approaches and research in the pursuit of widespread change. OUR VALUES OUR VISION WE BELIEVE HOUSING EVERYONE HAS A IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT TO A HOME RIGHT THAT AFFORDS AND IT’S OUR JOB TO Empowerment Agility PEOPLE DIGNITY. MAKE THAT HAPPEN. WE BELIEVE HOUSING EVERYONE HAS A IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT TO A HOME Leadership Courage RIGHT THAT AFFORDS AND IT’S OUR JOB TO PEOPLE DIGNITY. MAKE THAT HAPPEN. Fresh thinking Launch Housing 5 OUR WORK OUR ACHIEVEMENTS OUR CLIENTS • New assertive outreach teams in Frankston and Dandenong supported 61 people with funding from Victoria’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Plan. • Six people moved into the first of our tiny homes 16,284 in the western suburbs through the Harris individual people were assisted. Transportable Housing project. This was 4.2% (or 692) more people than last year, which is nearly 60 additional people supported every month. • Our Employment Program placed 22 people into employment compared to two in April–June 2018 (its inaugural year). • Launch Housing trained staff to administer naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of opioids and prevent overdose. It was subsequently used to save 10 lives. 19,085 • Around 1500 households secured or maintained clients supported by distinct organisational area. private rentals through our Private Rental Assistance One client can be supported by different areas of the Program (PRAP), about 300 more than in 2017–18. organisation over a 12-month period. We provided hundreds of housing solutions for clients from the many properties we own and manage, including: • 299 long-term community housing tenancies, 11 more than last year Client age distribution: • 95 head-leased* tenancies, 15 fewer than last year • 560 transitional housing properties, 13 more 3,402 3,767 25–34 34–44 than last year • 80 Education First Youth Foyer studios, equal to last year. * A head lease is a lease taken out by Launch Housing. These properties are sub-let to eligible clients, and the tenancies are managed by Launch Housing. Client age 1,434 distribution 2,785 18–24 45–54 237 1,796 412 15–17 55+ employees as at 30 June 2019. 1,378 1,489 Under 15 Unknown Launch Housing values a flexible workplace. Of the 412 total employees, 148 were full time, 210 were part time and 54 were casuals. 6 Annual Report 2018–19 IMMEDIATE SERVICES PEER SUPPORT By Joal Presincula, Peer Support Worker at Southbank I am proud to work for an organisation who sees the value in peer support. Peer support is a new feat in recreational and flexible enough to may not work for the current homelessness and I think Launch meet our consumers where they’re at. residents. We must shift as our Housing is carving the path towards clients shift. best practice on the homelessness Our program offers a peer-led sector landscape. relationship that provides residents a Our program must encompass safe space to be as they are. We listen empathy and build rapport in a way What is a peer support worker? without judgement, offer recreation that generates a sense of hope among I am somebody who uses my lived in a way that underpins our values our residents, while also contributing experience of homelessness to help to connect, and foster engagement to our overarching goal of ending shape the sector and better the lives through conversation and coffee. homelessness. of those currently living without a home, those living in trauma We have learned to be adaptive and I enjoy connecting with people and and society’s most vulnerable. respond to the needs of our residents building meaningful relationships at Southbank, as they arise. If with our residents. Becoming a peer I am proud to work for an organisation something about the program doesn’t support worker has allowed me to use who sees the value in the lived work, we rethink it, adapt it, reshape it my lived experience of homelessness experience workforce, sees peer and create something that does work. to build rapport with clients. support as a profession and values the consumer voice enough to build There is always a constant flow Being a consistent face for somebody a program to support people in a of different people, faces and who has had many inconsistencies is different and meaningful way. personalities at Southbank, so a vital for building connection and trust timetable that worked a month ago That is the core of peer support. Over the past year, we have shaped the peer support worker role to be one that is consistent, supportive, OUR CRISIS SITES ACCOMMODATED: families for an average length of 9 6 months each in South Melbourne. clients for an average length of 58 10 weeks each in Dandenong. clients for an average length of MY LIVED EXPERIENCE 136 5 weeks each in East St Kilda. OF HOMELESSNESS HAS ALLOWED ME TO BUILD clients for an average length of RAPPORT WITH CLIENTS. 277 7 weeks each in Southbank. Launch Housing 7 MELBOURNE STREET TO HOME By Rosie Dodd, Coordinator, Inner South Outreach ENGAGING HARD-TO-REACH CLIENTS Melbourne Street to Home (MS2H) is a We have a focus on addressing people’s which in the last financial year took, partnership between Launch Housing, health needs within a holistic case on average, 10 months for each client the Salvation Army and Bolton Clarke. management model. We use an that had a successful housing outcome. MS2H utilises a Housing First* assertive outreach approach to meet approach and explicitly targets the people in their own environment and We continue to support them for up most vulnerable people sleeping engage with those hardest to reach. to 12 months after housing has been rough, which is understood to mean secured. In the Launch Housing MS2H those at risk of premature death. MS2H provides people with intensive team, there are three case managers support before they access housing, and one Bolton Clarke nurse. * The Housing First model prescribes safe and permanent housing as the first priority for people experiencing homelessness.
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