Crisis worsens as rents soar, government assistance reduced
Apr 18, 2021 7:12:34 GMT 7
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Post by bear on Apr 18, 2021 7:12:34 GMT 7
Queensland's homelessness crisis worsens as rents soar, government assistance reduced
Social services fear the number of people sleeping rough around Queensland will continue to rise, with the end of pandemic financial support occurring at the same time as a crush on rental availability.
Key points:
• Very little social housing is available and rents have skyrocketed
• COVID-19 financial supplements have started to wind down
• Support services say the number of people in need has increased
Goodna Street Life, west of Brisbane, provides crisis accommodation at "Helen's Haven", as well as drug and alcohol counselling. The centre also helps people find local rental properties.
Manager Helen Youngberry said the grassroots service was struggling to provide accommodation for those in desperate need.
"It has become harder, because the houses that we would have rented are either out of our reach or people now have more choice of who to rent the houses to," Ms Youngberry said.
"We're not just talking about your four- or five-bedroom mansions here, we're talking about little two-bedroom cottages that used to be $230 a week, and are now up around the $320 a week."
The organisation is now trying to fast-track a project to set up "pod" accommodation that people can access for a night – giving them access to a bed, shelter and a phone charger.
Goodna Street Life is hoping to fast track pod accommodation for homeless people.
One of her current clients, Jason, spent a few weeks sleeping rough after losing his business and leaving his family home.
He said he slept in parklands in Ipswich for about a week, then moved between parks and a shopping centre in Goodna.
"It was eye opening. Scary," he said of living on the streets.
"There's lots and lots of people on the streets. I wasn't aware of it, until I found myself in the situation."
With mental health support and the help of the people at Helen's Haven, Jason is confident he can get back on track to find work and permanent housing.
"There seems to be a lot more people wanting accommodation than is available, hence why I think there is a large quantity of people living on the streets."
Shelters are full
Maria Leebeek from the Gold Coast Youth Service said the current situation was a perfect storm — with very little social housing available and rents in the private market skyrocketing.
As of September last year, there were 26,397 households on Queensland's Public Housing Register.
"Basically, there's no housing, or no affordable housing," Ms Leebeek said.
"People are stuck with nowhere to go.
"We've been motelling a lot of people in the interim … there's not that many motels that you can do that with, and it's expensive. A motel for a week can be $600 to $800 a week. It's not affordable on an ongoing basis."
She said as COVID-19 financial supplements wound down, presentations at their doors had increased — many of them people who had never come to them for help before.
She said shelters for young people, or women and families fleeing domestic violence, were all full.
"It's a bit of a dire situation at the moment," Ms Leebeek said.
"The whole rental crisis isn't just the people coming through the doors. It's also my own staff. I've talked to other services in the region … I know one service said, 'well, our staff are homeless while we're supporting homeless people'."
Cairns Homelessness Services Hub program manager Evan Martin said the service was very busy and getting busier.
"We're seeing new presentations of people as we see the coronavirus supplement coming to an end," he said.
Mr Martin said there was very limited rental stock available in the region and prices were increasing.
"It's out of reach for a lot of people on low incomes," he said.
"We're seeing a lot of people are forced to couch surf, live in unsuitable and unsustainable properties. The bigger family groups are relying on hotel and motel accommodation, which is more expensive … no security and no cooking facilities.
"Living on a shoestring — it's very hard to manage."
People going without food
Rosies Friends on the Street has seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of people showing up to some of their outreach services, chief executive Jayne Shawcross says.
"Certainly there's rental distress, pressure on accommodation. We've got more people sleeping rough and sleeping in cars than we've seen previously," she said.
Ms Shawcross said people who might be spending all their income on rent don't have enough left over for other essentials, like food.
Last year the Queensland Government provided almost $25 million for an emergency housing response, so people without a permanent address could comply with public health directives.
"Anybody who was staying with friends, people living on the street, people in congregate boarding houses … all had the opportunity to access emergency housing in hotels," said Karyn Walsh, chief executive of the not-for-profit organisation Micah Projects.
The organisation keeps a "know by name" list of people sleeping rough and there are currently 160 people it knows of on the streets in Brisbane.
"We want the government to continue to invest what they invested during the pandemic," Ms Walsh said.
"We're seeing more children under the age of five, school-aged children accompanying their parents — last week we had 20 families present through our hub.
"Government could subsidise private rental which they've done in some cases, but you know, there's a scarcity of properties.
"I think there needs to be an urgency to refurbishing existing stock that could be used better … in the meantime, try and secure as many private rentals and subsidise if needed."
Ms Walsh also called for construction on more social housing to begin urgently.
Queensland has a 10-year housing strategy, funded to the tune of $1.6 billion, with plans to build 5,500 social and affordable homes — 2,200 of those builds have commenced.
Communities and Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch said housing in the state was "very, very tight".
She said several thousand headleases — when a government agency or a housing provider rents a private property, then on lets it to a low income tenant — were currently funded by the state.
"Certainly when you're seeing the pressures across the market, in terms of private rental, [headleasing] becomes a more difficult part of the equation," she said.
"Those [5,500] properties are going to be even more important into the future particularly when you take into account some of the things that we're seeing come off the boil.
"The federal government is exiting the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) for instance. That for me is a massive concern … we need an alternative to that and the federal government needs to take a role in that."
Federal Housing Minister Michael Sukkar said NRAS would continue to operate until mid-2026, with properties progressively exiting as the 10-year timeframe for incentives ends.
"This government made a decision not to extend Labor's poorly designed scheme, which was rorted by some participants at the expense of mum-and-dad investors and the community housing sector," he said.
"In 2020-21, the federal government will provide more than $8.2 billion in housing and homelessness programs, up on last year, which includes $1.6 billion paid to the states and territories to deliver and maintain state social housing.
There are 9,718 NRAS dwellings in Queensland – the highest number in any state or territory — 1,079 will cease in 2021 and and 2,692 will expire next year.
www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/queensland-homeless-crisis-rental-shelter/100074284
Social services fear the number of people sleeping rough around Queensland will continue to rise, with the end of pandemic financial support occurring at the same time as a crush on rental availability.
Key points:
• Very little social housing is available and rents have skyrocketed
• COVID-19 financial supplements have started to wind down
• Support services say the number of people in need has increased
Goodna Street Life, west of Brisbane, provides crisis accommodation at "Helen's Haven", as well as drug and alcohol counselling. The centre also helps people find local rental properties.
Manager Helen Youngberry said the grassroots service was struggling to provide accommodation for those in desperate need.
"It has become harder, because the houses that we would have rented are either out of our reach or people now have more choice of who to rent the houses to," Ms Youngberry said.
"We're not just talking about your four- or five-bedroom mansions here, we're talking about little two-bedroom cottages that used to be $230 a week, and are now up around the $320 a week."
The organisation is now trying to fast-track a project to set up "pod" accommodation that people can access for a night – giving them access to a bed, shelter and a phone charger.
Goodna Street Life is hoping to fast track pod accommodation for homeless people.
One of her current clients, Jason, spent a few weeks sleeping rough after losing his business and leaving his family home.
He said he slept in parklands in Ipswich for about a week, then moved between parks and a shopping centre in Goodna.
"It was eye opening. Scary," he said of living on the streets.
"There's lots and lots of people on the streets. I wasn't aware of it, until I found myself in the situation."
With mental health support and the help of the people at Helen's Haven, Jason is confident he can get back on track to find work and permanent housing.
"There seems to be a lot more people wanting accommodation than is available, hence why I think there is a large quantity of people living on the streets."
Shelters are full
Maria Leebeek from the Gold Coast Youth Service said the current situation was a perfect storm — with very little social housing available and rents in the private market skyrocketing.
As of September last year, there were 26,397 households on Queensland's Public Housing Register.
"Basically, there's no housing, or no affordable housing," Ms Leebeek said.
"People are stuck with nowhere to go.
"We've been motelling a lot of people in the interim … there's not that many motels that you can do that with, and it's expensive. A motel for a week can be $600 to $800 a week. It's not affordable on an ongoing basis."
She said as COVID-19 financial supplements wound down, presentations at their doors had increased — many of them people who had never come to them for help before.
She said shelters for young people, or women and families fleeing domestic violence, were all full.
"It's a bit of a dire situation at the moment," Ms Leebeek said.
"The whole rental crisis isn't just the people coming through the doors. It's also my own staff. I've talked to other services in the region … I know one service said, 'well, our staff are homeless while we're supporting homeless people'."
Cairns Homelessness Services Hub program manager Evan Martin said the service was very busy and getting busier.
"We're seeing new presentations of people as we see the coronavirus supplement coming to an end," he said.
Mr Martin said there was very limited rental stock available in the region and prices were increasing.
"It's out of reach for a lot of people on low incomes," he said.
"We're seeing a lot of people are forced to couch surf, live in unsuitable and unsustainable properties. The bigger family groups are relying on hotel and motel accommodation, which is more expensive … no security and no cooking facilities.
"Living on a shoestring — it's very hard to manage."
People going without food
Rosies Friends on the Street has seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of people showing up to some of their outreach services, chief executive Jayne Shawcross says.
"Certainly there's rental distress, pressure on accommodation. We've got more people sleeping rough and sleeping in cars than we've seen previously," she said.
Ms Shawcross said people who might be spending all their income on rent don't have enough left over for other essentials, like food.
Last year the Queensland Government provided almost $25 million for an emergency housing response, so people without a permanent address could comply with public health directives.
"Anybody who was staying with friends, people living on the street, people in congregate boarding houses … all had the opportunity to access emergency housing in hotels," said Karyn Walsh, chief executive of the not-for-profit organisation Micah Projects.
The organisation keeps a "know by name" list of people sleeping rough and there are currently 160 people it knows of on the streets in Brisbane.
"We want the government to continue to invest what they invested during the pandemic," Ms Walsh said.
"We're seeing more children under the age of five, school-aged children accompanying their parents — last week we had 20 families present through our hub.
"Government could subsidise private rental which they've done in some cases, but you know, there's a scarcity of properties.
"I think there needs to be an urgency to refurbishing existing stock that could be used better … in the meantime, try and secure as many private rentals and subsidise if needed."
Ms Walsh also called for construction on more social housing to begin urgently.
Queensland has a 10-year housing strategy, funded to the tune of $1.6 billion, with plans to build 5,500 social and affordable homes — 2,200 of those builds have commenced.
Communities and Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch said housing in the state was "very, very tight".
She said several thousand headleases — when a government agency or a housing provider rents a private property, then on lets it to a low income tenant — were currently funded by the state.
"Certainly when you're seeing the pressures across the market, in terms of private rental, [headleasing] becomes a more difficult part of the equation," she said.
"Those [5,500] properties are going to be even more important into the future particularly when you take into account some of the things that we're seeing come off the boil.
"The federal government is exiting the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) for instance. That for me is a massive concern … we need an alternative to that and the federal government needs to take a role in that."
Federal Housing Minister Michael Sukkar said NRAS would continue to operate until mid-2026, with properties progressively exiting as the 10-year timeframe for incentives ends.
"This government made a decision not to extend Labor's poorly designed scheme, which was rorted by some participants at the expense of mum-and-dad investors and the community housing sector," he said.
"In 2020-21, the federal government will provide more than $8.2 billion in housing and homelessness programs, up on last year, which includes $1.6 billion paid to the states and territories to deliver and maintain state social housing.
There are 9,718 NRAS dwellings in Queensland – the highest number in any state or territory — 1,079 will cease in 2021 and and 2,692 will expire next year.
www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/queensland-homeless-crisis-rental-shelter/100074284
