Transforming the homelessness system in the Nepean
If good intentions, well meaning programs, and humanitarian gestures could end homelessness, it would be history by now. Since they don’t, it is time to do something different, something that solves the problem, not services the disgrace.
Philip Mangano, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Reactive response to chronic homelessness
In most developed countries, including Australia, homelessness service provision has grown in response to the problem and tended to address the immediate or crisis needs of people. There has been less strategic development of systems that have anticipated ending chronic homelessness.
Over the past few years, numerous cities (more than 300) in the US have developed action plans and services and made affordable housing available which aims to end homelessness. Those city leaders have made the decision that they need not tolerate any level of chronic homelessness within their communities. They have decided to stop ‘servicing it and begin solving it’
(Philip Mangano, Executive Director, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. From a conversation with Felicity Reynolds, 9 November 2007)
Those city leaders no longer want to see their fellow citizens fed in parks, much like sea gulls. They no longer want to provide long term housing in crisis shelters, they don’t want to see chronic alcoholics freeze to death on their streets or find people with psychiatric disability sheltered in hospital emergency departments or prisons. They have agreed that they want to try to put an end to chronic homelessness.
The above is taken from the Mercy Foundation’s website, with permission - www.mercyfoundation.com.au
Program to tackle homelessness in the Nepean
Following the lead of people and organisations like Nan Roman, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness in the US, we are starting to develop a bold new program of homelessness initiatives designed to involve everyone in our region in actions that will end homelessness. These include:
How does Housing First differ from what we do now?
Housing First is a program model that assists chronically homeless individuals by providing immediately affordable and permanent housing. Supports are continuous throughout the engagement process and through placement into permanent housing to assist people to maintain their housing. A key element of this approach includes the provision of flexible individualized supports at varying levels of intensity and times. The principle is that giving a homeless person a long-term, secure home facilitates the stability necessary to allow them to work towards other beneficial goals.
Until now SAAP and other homelessness services have operated according to a Housing Ready model. Housing ready housing starts with treatment/ case management and progresses through a series of increasingly less service-intensive options with the promise of long-term supported housing as people are ‘ready.’ Housing is transitional; services are high demand (eg residential treatment) where the receipt of some package of services is a condition of participation in the program.
As residents progress through levels of readiness, they are often moved from property to property.Housing ready programs are usually attached to crisis and transitional housing.
In our region the Nepean Youth Homelessness Service (NYHS) project was funded using a Housing First approach by the Premier’s Department in December 2008. This project, auspiced by Marist Youth Care, has demonstrated a new way for local services to respond to homelessness.
Supportive Housing program for chronically homelessness
Using the learning gained from the NHYS project, a consortium of homelessness agencies are hoping to establish a supportive housing program in our region. Nepean Wentworth Supportive Housing, if funded, will provide around 150 permanent houses to the most vulnerable and chronically homeless, with wraparound support to help them sustain their housing. Project 40 is the first stage of this initiative and commenced in the Blue Mountains in September 2009.
See our Information Sheets 1 and 2 on Housing First and Project 40 Blue Mountains for more info. They can be downloaded from the Resources page.
Systems reform – establishing targets
But how will we know that our initiatives are working towards ending homelessness? The need to transform the homelessness service system is based on the premise that, no matter how well we have been running our services, homelessness has still been on the increase. We also know that in NSW SAAP-funded homelessness services have only reached 19% of those who currently experience homelessness.
In the Nepean we have heard anecdotal information that more young people, families and older men and women are sleeping rough and living in cars, garages, tents and squats yet we do not have any hard or comprehensive data on precisely how many people are homeless, what sort of homelessness they are experiencing, and where the homelessness hotspots are.
We have gained some useful statisitics from agencies such as St Vincent de Paul who have recorded dramatic increases (in some areas of over 200%) in requests for material aid in the Blue Mountains. Other support services have recorded massive increases in requests for support for families over the last year. We need to collate all of this useful service data.
We specifically need to undertake Counts within our region to identify how many are sleeping rough or in inappropriate accommodation such as squats and garages, as well as gather evidence to enable us to develop clear targets by which the success of our programs will be judged.
We need to gather evidence on the scope of the homelessness problem in our region – how many and who are experiencing chronic homelessness, and how many or who are experiencing a shorter-term housing crisis. This will enable the development of outcomes and targets.
The old paradigm was that street homeless individuals should be cared for more by charitable, often religious, organizations rather than by mainstream public agencies. The old paradigm relied heavily on emergency shelters, transitional housing, and sobriety-based programs. The old paradigm did not plan, or expect, to end chronic street homelessness
US Dep’t of Housing and Urban Development, ‘Strategies for reducing chronic street homelessness’, Final Report, January 2004, page xv
Systems reform - integrating mainstream & homelessness agencies
The Commonwealth and State Government’s latest policy directions on homelessness outline the need to hold mainstream agencies accountable for the delivery of targets around reducing homelessness. Rather than having charitable and community organisations continue to bear the major responsibility for servicing the chronically homelessness, government is now setting goals aimed at having key mainstream agencies take responsibility for reducing homelessness in priority areas.
At a local level the decision-making structures that will oversee the establishment of our new homelessness initiatives, must have key mainstream departments involved, in particular Health, Corrections & Juvenile Justice, Housing, DoCS and government agencies such as Centrelink.
As we target and reduce the numbers of those experiencing chronic homelessness, hopefully more resources of the mainstream and homelessness sector will be freed up. This will enable us to further target our resources according to the evidence we uncover about specific and changing needs of our region.
By ensuring that both mainstream and homelessness agencies collaborate in providing an integrated service system focused on ending homelessness , rather than servicing it, we will move closer to our goals.
Systems reform – a different model of case work
Targeting the most vulnerable and/ or those experiencing chronic homelessness often means working with the very people whom homelessness services have previously excluded or been unable to help. This model of case work requires intensive and flexible support to be provided by multi-disciplinary support teams. Assertive Engagement
We are in the process of developing Case Studies and Practice Workshops for support workers based on what we have learnt through the challenges faced using a new Housing First approach within the NHYS project and on what we can learn from elsewhere.
In England, the experience of implementing a Housing First model resulted in the following observations in relation to supporting those people experiencing homelessness:
Never give up on the most vulnerable
It is inevitable that some rough sleepers, especially those who have been on the streets for many years, will have difficulty in coming back in. They will need specialist help and support if they are to succeed.
Help rough sleepers to become active members of the community
We need innovative and pragmatic approaches which build self-esteem, bring on talents, and help individuals to become ready for work and occupation away from the streets.
Be realistic about what we can offer those who are capable of helping themselves
We should be using our resources to help the most vulnerable and not to provide a fast track into permanent housing for healthy and able individuals.
Coming in from the Cold: The Government’s strategy on rough sleeping, 1998 UK