Social services groups call on Government to provide certainty around funding for homelessness programs

Updated

The Federal Government has been accused of not being serious about tackling the problem of homelessness.

Sixty organisations have signed a joint letter urging Social Services Minister Scott Morrison to give the sector some certainty, with $115 million in federal funding due to run out by the middle of the year.

Homelessness Australia chief executive Glenda Stevens warned that, without certainty, clients and workers would be anxious and "homelessness services hamstrung".

Ms Stevens said it would be irresponsible to take on long-term clients when funding could run out.

She said staff were worried about their own futures.

One homelessness services client, Danny, said joint state and federal programs have succeeded in transitioning people from the streets to safe and secure housing.

"The people who facilitate the program have a really, really good idea of some of the difficulties that come up," he said.

There's still a lot of times now that I come up against a lot of difficulties and the simplest solution is just to throw it all in and go back to the street. Former homeless man Danny

"Paying rent, paying bills, keeping the house clean, doing the weekly shopping.

"A lot of us have never had a house before."

Danny said the support workers' help and understanding have helped him get away from a damaging cycle of mental health problems, drug abuse and homelessness.

"They had a brilliant knowledge of the difficulties that we had day to day and ... helped us learn the skills to maintain a tenancy," he said.

"Other programs simply house you and that's it."

Danny said his circumstances could have been very different if he had not secured a place in the program tackling homelessness.

"There's still a lot of times now that I come up against a lot of difficulties, and the simplest solution is just to throw it all in and go back to the street," he said.

Thousands could return to streets if funding is cut

The Kevin Rudd-led Labor government made tackling homelessness a national priority.

It funded programs for four years. Since then, money has been set aside for one year at a time.

The most recent commitment expires at the end of June.

"If it's not renewed it means that 80,000 vulnerable Australians could be thrown back into homelessness and it means that more than 3,000 jobs will be lost around the country," Ms Stevens said.

Ms Stevens said the letter to Mr Morrison was a last resort.

She said she would rather negotiate with the Government quietly, but so far the calls for funding certainty had been ignored.

In a statement to the ABC, Mr Morrison said any decision on future funding would have to wait for the May budget.

"The previous federal Labor government failed to make any provision for Commonwealth homelessness funding after June 30, 2014," he said.

"In contrast, the Coalition Government invested $115 million into the 2014-15 National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, which was matched by states and territories.

"The states and territories are responsible for determining priorities and retain the flexibility to decide which services should be funded."

Topics: homelessness, community-and-society, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia

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