The federal government has thrown a two-year lifeline to homelessness services.
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison last week announced $230 million in funding for the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH) and said priority would be given to services working with victims of family violence and homeless youth under 18.
“We have brought forward this announcement ahead of the May budget to give providers of homelessness services across Australia more certainty, enabling them to get on with their work of helping some of our most vulnerable people,” Mr Morrison said.
Women’s Health West (WHW) chief executive Robyn Gregory said key programs to divert women away from homelessness would have ended without the funding.
In the past financial year, WHW used NPAH funds to provide a 24-hour crisis response for 6209 women, install 187 “security measures” to improve the safety of 85 women and 111 children, and provide court support to 62 women to obtain intervention orders which forced the perpetrators of family violence to leave the family home.
“While this extension is more limited than our request, the news gives our staff some security as well as the important promise of ongoing services for women and children … in crisis,” Dr Gregory said.
North and West Homelessness Network co- ordinator Sarah Langmore also welcomed the decision.
“It’s very hard to provide a continuity of services when there’s no confirmation of funding,” she said.
“We support thousands of individuals and households in the west and those services are primarily dependent on [NPAH] funding.”
Ms Langmore said about 150 families and individuals presented every month seeking help for homelessness.
Mr Morrison called on state and territory governments to match the funding “to allow for continuity of homelessness services across Australia”.
But state Housing Minister Martin Foley said the Victorian government had not received details of the proposed federal package.
“The Andrews Labor government committed to a three-year agreement to provide more certainty and we call on the federal government to match the three years,” Mr Foley said.
“We’ll also work with the federal government to understand what this announcement means for services and our most vulnerable as there has been very little consultation to date.”
