2022-04-24
Media Release
The Australian Greens have launched their plan to boost Commonwealth funding for homelessness services by $550 million per year over the next ten years. The Greens plan has been fully costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office.
Hundreds of thousands of people seek support from specialist homelessness services each year and the numbers of people being turned away are increasing. In 2020–21, specialist services provided support to almost 278,300 people , yet a third of people who needed assistance from these 1 services were told there were not enough beds. Older women are the fastest growing group of 2 people experiencing homelessness, with homelessness in women over 55 growing by 31% in the last census. 3
Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi is launching the policy initiative in the NSW electorate of Richmond alongside Greens candidate Mandy Nolan.
In North Coast NSW, the housing crisis is particularly acute, with rapidly rising house prices and rents, long waiting lists for social housing, and recent floods displacing thousands of residents who were already facing housing insecurity. The recent NSW Statewide Street Count conducted in February 2022 found that more than 40 per cent of the 1,207 people counted sleeping rough in New South Wales were in Northern NSW/New England/Mid North Coast, and concentrated on the North Coast.
The Greens commitment to funding homelessness services sits alongside the Greens commitment to build one million new publicly-owned, affordable, accessible, high-quality and sustainable homes over 20 years that will obliterate projected public housing waiting lists.
Lines attributable to Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi:
“Homelessness services simply can’t keep up with demand for what they provide, day in, day out. Federal funding is manifestly inadequate and must be urgently boosted across the board.
“A lack of proper support for services means the most vulnerable in our community are left out in the cold, including older women, survivors of domestic violence, First Nations and LGBTQIA+ people, and refugees and migrants.
“Homelessness and housing insecurity are not inevitable, but the result of deliberate public policy choices made by governments. It’s time to make a different choice.
“Neither the Coalition nor Labor have a plan to solve the housing crisis. In fact, they are committed to entrenching the unfair status quo.
“The housing and homelessness crisis requires ambitious, bold solutions to ensure everyone has a roof over their head. We need to significantly boost funding for services and build one million homes to ensure everyone has a roof over their head.”
Lines attributable to Greens candidate for Richmond, Mandy Nolan:
"Witnessing older women being forced into homelessness prompted my move into politics. Women worked hard their entire lives and now are forced to live in garages or their cars. I was overwhelmed by their cries for help but could only do so much as an advocate. I can do a lot more from the crossbench.
"Across the Richmond electorate, there's nowhere to live and nowhere to go. I'm constantly hearing from people one sleep away from homelessness. They are on the hunt for homes, but they are non-existent. The floods have super-charged the housing crisis. Now it's a housing disaster.
"There is an acute need for adequately funding homelessness services. However, we ultimately need structural change to address housing affordability. Having a roof over your head is a right; having a dozen investment properties in your portfolio is not.
"This funding is what we need to fill the gap created by the decades of inaction from both parties on the housing issue. Policy from both parties reward investors over people who want to get their foot in the door.
"I hear from single mums worried about sleeping in their cars, ending up in caravans or camping rough with their kids. For a rich country, it's unfathomable. People need support. Yet for the old parties, the lights are on, but nobody's home."
Read the full initiative:
Fully-Funded Frontline Homelessness Services