Melbourne Footy Finals Exacerbate Homelessness Crisis

Fantastic for the CHP team to sit down last week with Victoria's new Minister for Housing, the Hon. Nick Staikos. We discussed achieving: 🏠 a long-term building blitz of public and community housing in Victoria; 🤝 a Housing First uplift of increased assertive outreach and supportive housing to support more people sleeping rough into long-term housing; and 💡a strategic approach to achieve better delivery of support within the homelessness sector and better integration between the homelessness sector and other intersecting sectors such as health, education and justice - with particular focus on expanded homelessness prevention and tailored youth homelessness responses. The evidence is clear as to how we can end homelessness, but it takes us all lifting together. CHP looks forward to continuing to work with the State Government - and all parties - to transform Victoria into a State where everyone has a home that keeps them safe and gives them the opportunity to thrive. #EveryHomeIsAFuture

Out of budget lock up today and it’s a huge win to see funding committed to more assertive outreach in Victoria! This $25.8 million will mean more rough sleepers receive more support where they are, plugging some of the assertive outreach funding shortfall across the state. This funding commitment is paired with additional emergency accommodation. In other commitments, the Tenancy Plus program will be expanded – meaning renters in social homes will receive more support. Funding will also support First Nations tenants in social housing. We had already heard in a pre-budget announcement that the Victorian Government will commit to 7,000 more social homes over the coming decade. This is a great start – but far from what we need to meet the huge demand in Victoria. Council to Homeless Persons will keep working hard to ensure every Victorian can have the dignity of a home.  Stay tuned for more from us unpacking the detail of the budget and what it means for the sector. 

Great to meet yesterday with Kat Theophanous MP, Victoria’s Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health and for Renters. Both are issues that are massively impacted by homelessness. We spoke about the importance of: - increasing funding for Victoria’s highly effective rental protection programs, which help renters keep their tenancy - and out of homelessness - in moment of financial crisis - growing social housing - Victorians’ safety net at a time when record high rents and low vacancies means losing your rental brings a genuine risk of homelessness - establishing a homelessness prevention taskforce to identify ways the homelessness, health, education, justice, family violence and other intersecting sectors can collaborate to intervene as soon as someone shows the first risks of homelessness. Better homelessness prevention is essential for the health and wellbeing of all Victorians, but particularly women, who make up nearly 60% of people coming to Victorian homelessness services. We know how to end homelessness, and with decisive action from our political representatives to implement those solutions, we can safeguard the future of every Victorian. #EveryHomeIsAFuture #EndHomelessness

A major new research report released by CHP today has for the first time documented the full, very limited extent of assertive outreach in Victoria. It finds the state has the equivalent of just 40.5 full time assertive outreach workers to engage more than 11,000 people experiencing rough sleeping. The State Government funds assertive outreach programs in just 12 Local Government Areas. In the absence of government support, a number of other communities have self-funded their own assertive outreach programs. But that still leaves 55 LGAs with no assertive outreach at all. Assertive outreach is a lifeline for rough sleepers and an essential part of Victoria's homelessness response. CHP is calling on the government to fund 177 assertive outreach workers statewide to ensure that lifeline can reach every area where it is needed. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/g8XVtrm2 https://lnkd.in/gwdWj99z

Not long now until the Victorian Government releases its budget for 2026/27. In a time when we have the highest rates of homelessness in living memory, this is a critical moment for the government to front up to the housing crisis facing Victoria and take serious action. Here’s what we want to see funded in this budget to help end homelessness and deliver housing justice for Victorians. Read our full pre-budget submission to see what further investment the government should commit to: https://lnkd.in/ga6BCYb6 #VicBudget 

The City of Melbourne will make its revised budget, including community feedback on the CSO program, available online on Thursday May 21. The council heard quite a bit of feedback last Tuesday night on the waste of $3.75M it is spending on a program with a lot of holes in it. The 6-month evaluation of the CSO program was only provided to the HPUV 2 hours prior to last Tuesday's meeting when the council invited the public to the Town Hall to give verbal feedback. How could the public possibly be expected to provide informed feedback in that timeframe? The simple answer is they couldn't. It still feels like the City of Melbourne is not taking the community seriously in its concerns with how the council is going about things with this program and it still feels abusive. The onus is on the council to allay the community's fears about the CSO program by providing timely, rigorous and transparent evaluation of this program, but in that it has FAILED. The CSO evaluation paper is more like a promotions paper and it lacks important data and feedback that would enable the community to make a judgement as to its merits. Care to share your thoughts? Link to the evaluation here: https://lnkd.in/ghPt9esD It's a 4-page read.

Council to Homeless Persons is calling on governments and communities to take swift action to improve homelessness support services and housing after the tragic death of a 48-year-old father who was sleeping rough at a campsite in the Mornington Peninsula. We urge the state government to commit to lifting Victoria’s amount of social housing to meet the national average within a decade. The state’s independent infrastructure advisor, Infrastructure Victoria, last year recommended the government build 60,000 additional social housing homes by 2040. We also continue our call for increased investment in assertive outreach services, which are designed to find rough sleepers and connect them with the services they need to get support and a pathway to secure and safe housing. “We are dealing with record levels of homelessness in this state. Our waitlist for public housing has grown to nearly 67,000, and the average wait time for social housing is nearly 18 months. We desperately need more people on the ground to find rough sleepers and prevent avoidable deaths", Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale said. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gx9TgMjY #EveryHomeIsAFuture #EndHomelessnessNow #HousingEndsHomelessness #AssertiveOutreachSavesLives

We’ve spent the last year asking Victorian communities how we can end homelessness in this state. The final #WalkInHerShoes Statewide Community Insights Report, launched last week at Parliament House, captures what they told us. From Mornington to Maroondah, Shepparton to Latrobe, clear themes emerged in community responses. These are the 5 key actions Victorians want taken to end homelessness… Read the full report to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gJDNdFmQ

The City of Melbourne will release its revised 2026-27 budget online tomorrow, Thursday May 21, after a period of community feedback. The City and councillors have heard very loudly and clearly from people with lived experience of homelessness and crimimalisation, over 885 everyday Melbournians through our petition, as well as community legal centres, that this is a wrong move that punishes the victims of a system that has let people down. We don't want this for our city. City of Melbourne the choice is clear - you can spend $3.75M on a program that you have not proved warrants an expansion to its budget or officer size, or you can listen to the swell of Melbournians who have been campaigning hard and are against this. We call on you to re-direct this substantial pot of money into actually housing people and providing a pathway out of homelessness in our city. The council now has an opportunity to lead the community with an inclusive vision for Melbourne, the truly 'kind and safe' place that our Lord Mayor Nick Reece says is so very important to him. City of Melbourne - show us who you serve. We wait to see what your vision is tomorrow with the release of your revised budget. #csogogo With Inner Melbourne Community Legal 💐

Too many young people experiencing homelessness remain unsafe, unseen and unsupported across the systems meant to protect them. The RMIT Centre for Innovative Justice, with the support of MCM - Melbourne City Mission, has produced the "Unsafe. Unseen." report. It highlights the urgent need for earlier intervention, better coordination between services, and youth-appropriate pathways to safety and stability. Through MCM's work across the MCM Group, including Quantum Support Services, they see every day how gaps in the system place young people at further risk, and how targeted, youth-centred responses can change lives. They’re calling for collective action so no young person is left unseen or unsupported. Read the full CIJ report at mcm.org.au Thanks to MCM - Melbourne City Mission for their generous sponsorship of the Victorian Homelessness Conference. To find out more about the Conference, visit: https://lnkd.in/gDmVaC2N