Commonwealth Inquiry into Homelessness in Australia – Northern Sydney Housing & Homelessness Collaboration Submission A submission from not-for-profit community housing providers and homelessness services working partnership across Northern Sydney, New South Wales Summary In Northern Sydney, not-for-profit community housing providers and homelessness services are working in collaboration to deliver housing assistance and support for people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of homelessness. Our focus is on rapid rehousing, case coordination and wrap-around support as a foundation for long term, sustainable housing outcomes. The partnership is a first of its kind and emerged when the NSW Government transferred the management of 4,500 public housing properties in the Northern Sydney region of NSW to community housing providers. The transfer of social housing services took place between December 2018 and August 2019. The NSW community housing sector owns or manages over 46,000 social housing dwellings, representing more than 40% of the community housing sector nationally1. The NSW sector has tripled in size over the last 10 years with the support of State and Commonwealth governments. Combined, SGCH, Link and Bridge Housing and Women’s Housing Company manage approximately 15,000 social and affordable housing properties in NSW.As a sector, community housing providers are experienced in working collaboratively with homelessness and support services to deliver targeted local solutions to homelessness. From the outset we adopted a multi-agency approach, working with local services providers to ensure we deliver responsive housing and homelessness services to our local community. The key features of our collaboration model in Northern Sydney are: - Housing and Homelessness Collaboration Meeting – strategic governance structure to manage our collaboration partnerships and set our direction. - Housing and Homelessness Services Action Plan (copy attached) – our three - year plan setting out our priority actions and roles and responsibilities. - Local Case Coordination for Rough Sleepers – local operational meetings held fortnightly to coordinate service responses including outreach engagement with rough sleepers, with additional partners from local councils, police, mental health and local community centres. Our submission to the inquiry builds on our expertise working directly with people who have experienced homelessness and the positive outcomes we are achieving to resolve homelessness. Based on this experience we believe the key policy and service responses required to systemically address homelessness are: 1 Report on Government Services 2020 Housing and Homelessness https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government- services/2020/housing-and-homelessness/housing 1 - More social housing and affordable housing owned and managed by the community housing sector to enable ‘rapid rehousing’ to be the primary model of response - Targeted housing and wrap-around support models as a form of early intervention for those with complex needs - A clear separation between housing and support provision - Long term, sustained support funding allowing for the implementation of a ‘Housing First’ model for rough sleepers based on long term housing linked to flexible wrap-around support services - Collaborative multi-agency partnerships that address homelessness by driving action through planning and coordination of limited resources to best effect - Leveraging local partnerships to deliver innovative services offerings. Introduction to our collaboration In Northern Sydney, not-for-profit community housing providers and homelessness services work in collaboration to deliver housing assistance and support for people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of homelessness with a focus on rapid rehousing and support as a foundation for long term, sustainable housing outcomes. This partnership is a first of its kind and emerged when the NSW Government transferred the management of 4,500 public housing properties in Northern Sydney to community housing provider management between December 2018 and August 2019. To ensure responsive housing and homelessness services were delivered in our community, we came together to plan and coordinate our collective response. The partners working together under this collaboration include: Bridge Housing in partnership with Women’s Housing Company providing over 1,200 social housing homes and delivering private rental assistance in Northern Beaches and Mosman LGAs CatholicCare providing homelessness support services and accommodation Dignity providing supported temporary accommodation Link Housing providing over 3,500 social and affordable housing homes across Northern Sydney and private rental assistance in Ryde, Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai LGAs Manly Warringah Women’s Resource Centre providing homelessness support services and accommodation for women with children experiencing domestic and family violence Mission Australia providing homelessness support services and leading rough sleeper outreach services Phoenix House providing homelessness services, living skills programs, and alternative education pathways for young people 2 SGCH (St George Community Housing) providing around 1,400 social housing homes and private rental assistance in Hunters Hill, Lane Cove, North Sydney and Willoughby LGAs Taldumande providing homelessness support services and accommodation for children and young people The Burdekin Association providing homelessness services, living skills programs and alternative education pathways for young people The Northern Centre providing support services for people at risk of losing their home Women’s Community Shelters providing homelessness support services and accommodation for women. Under our collaboration approach we drive service coordination and innovation by: Communicating and sharing information effectively about policy, programs and reforms that impact service delivery Working together to ensure clarity about roles and responsibilities to drive local collaboration and service provision that delivers better outcomes Developing effective local structures, tools and initiatives to deliver better outcomes Resolving strategic issues that are identified by front line staff The key features of our collaboration that guide our strategic and operational actions are: Housing and Homelessness Collaboration Meeting – strategic governance structure to manage our collaboration partnerships and set our direction. Housing and Homelessness Services Action Plan (copy attached) – our three-year plan setting out our priority actions and roles and responsibilities. Local Case Coordination for Rough Sleepers – local operational meetings held fortnightly to coordinate service responses including outreach engagement with rough sleepers, with additional partners from local councils, police, mental health and local community centres. Response to Inquiry Terms of Reference 4. Opportunities for early intervention and prevention of homelessness More social housing and affordable housing Fundamental to the prevention of homelessness is an available and growing supply of social housing and affordable housing for people in need. Over the last 30 years the proportion of Australians who own their own home has declined. House prices have risen sharply while wages have remained stagnant. The ratio of average disposable household income to median house price has increased from just over 4 in 1991 to just over 7 in 20152. As a result, a growing number of households are now renting through the private market3. At the 2 Housing affordability in Australia Figure 1: Dwelling Price to Income Ration – Parliament of Australia https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook45p/HousingAffordability 3 Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘More households renting as home ownership falls’, Media Release 17 July 2019 3 same time, the total stock of social housing has declined from over 6 percent of the total stock of housing in 1996 to around 4 percent in 20164. As a result of these structural drivers, there is a major shortage of housing that is affordable to those on lower incomes. This has contributed to the steady increase in homelessness of 30 percent between 2006 to 20165. Both the reduction in social housing and lack of affordable housing is a fundamental issue that needs to be tackled in order to successfully prevent homelessness. Estimates suggest there is a current shortfall of almost 440,000 social housing dwellings, which is projected to grow to 730,000 over the next 20 years6. Similar estimates highlight a current shortage of 215,000 affordable housing dwellings, increasing to almost 300,000 over the next two decades7. While supply of market housing has increased in recent years, this has not driven down the cost of housing. Additional supply needs to be targeted social and affordable housing as the private market is not a viable alternative. Fewer than 3 percent of available properties are affordable for households reliant on Centrelink payments8. Not only is the private market not affordable and increasingly a driver of homelessness for people on low incomes, it is also not an appropriate housing outcome for people managing complex health or mental health issues or who are long term rough sleepers. These groups of people require an intensive and supported tenancy management model and access to support to sustain their housing.