More housing needed for the several thousand rough sleepers across Australia

Thousands of rough sleepers and couch surfers staying in hotels and motels during the coronavirus pandemic could end up back on the streets if governments don’t act quickly to fund housing and support measures, homelessness services say.

Close to 5000 people who were sleeping on the streets found temporary accommodation in empty hotel rooms, enabling them to socially isolate and lower their risk of contracting COVID-19.

Industry experts say it’s the first time homelessness organisations from around Australia have collaborated at a national level together, which has now presented the federal and state governments with a unique opportunity to make a tangible difference to rough sleepers across Australia.

“COVID-19, as crazy as it is, has allowed us to identify who is homeless [across the country] and test what getting people into rapid accommodation can deliver,” said City of Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Vershoor.

“It really would be such a waste of effort now if everyone went back to the streets.”

At an Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH) forum on Tuesday, homelessness organisations from across the country met to discuss the future of the thousands of rough sleepers currently residing in hotel rooms, highlighting the urgent need for a solution now that restrictions were beginning to be eased nationally.

While more than 1000 people had been helped across Victoria, Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said the hope was that they would not end up rough sleeping again.

“We’ve done well but our measure as a state will be determined in the next little while,” Ms Smith said. “Are we going to move these people back onto the streets? I should hope not.”

Cr Vershoor told Domain that most, if not all, of Adelaide’s homeless community had been helped during COVID-19, with some now finding more permanent housing.

She said Adelaide had been able to achieve this by digging deeper with each homelessness case, understanding the person’s individual needs and taking those into consideration to ensure they received the right support and a new home they could actually stay in.

Other states were now looking to adopt the Adelaide Zero Project model, she said.

Micah Projects chief executive Karyn Walsh said people in temporary accommodation feared what would happen next, especially when it came to their health.

“People are still living with enormous uncertainty and anxiety,” Ms Walsh said during the forum.

She praised the efforts of health workers and governments’ approach to the issue so far.

“There’s been unprecedented cooperation between parties and states and that needs to continue,” Ms Walsh said.

A critical pillar of the COVID-19 recovery was to keep people safe and in a home, she said. 

But there were still challenges for some, despite the temporary reprieve in accommodation through hotels and motels.

In Western Australia, the Hotels with Heart pilot program was abandoned this month because those who had been sleeping rough struggled with social isolation while staying in the hotels.

WA Community Services Minister Simone McGurk said at the time that while there had been plans to extend the temporary hotel accommodation past the pandemic, it hadn’t worked.

“You can’t put 20 of the most vulnerable chronic rough sleepers into a hotel and expect there to be no setbacks,” Ms McGurk said at the time.

Ms Smith said despite the challenges, there were important lessons to be learnt from these experiences, including the type of support services which were needed for each person.

A federal housing strategy was needed, not just for people to have a home but to also ensure that they had the support they needed to live independently, Ms Smith said.

This included services for those with complex issues such as mental illnesses, and drug and alcohol addiction.