With 979 properties and 250 clients under the wing of Family and Community Services (FACS) in the Albury area, the director of housing and communities Paul Harding admits it’s a “significant” workload.

However he said that since the state government’s reform of specialist homelessness services last year there had been a shift in the way services were delivered  – to streamline a person’s access to help and stop the cycle of re-entering the system.

Social housing is one arm of a new model that sees government and non-government services working together to deliver the full spectrum of support from crisis accommodation to long-term housing solutions.

Mr Harding said FACS was just one part of the local solution.

With a waiting list of about three years for a property at Albury, social housing can not accommodate everyone.

“I’d love it to be less but that’s why our focus also has to be on early intervention and private rental,” he said.

“We now work together to ensure people are not shuffled from service to service and don’t have to tell their story 12 times to get help.”

A roof over one’s head is just one piece of the puzzle.

Domestic violence, family breakdown,unemployment, mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse can all impact on homelessness.

“Without wraparound support, a house is useless,” Mr Harding said.

“We spend more time with each client to identify their needs and help them ‘in place’ rather than building refuges and filling them up.”

Prior to the reform, Mr Harding said figures showed 85 per cent of people who used a refuge would return.

“We want to break that nexus so these people – and their children – don’t re-enter the system in crisis.”

Helping people into long-term accommodation is the ultimate aim and social housing is part of the answer.

Eligibility is based on an income limit only, according to Mr Harding who said it was not a requirement for clients to apply for 12 private rentals before they were eligible for a property.

People go on to a waiting list but there is help for those in immediate crisis; they will be found temporary accommodation and may be approved for priority housing.

The staff who work at the coal-face – in one of two teams handling property/tenancy or walk-in demand – go out of their way to find solutions for people, says Mr Harrington who has worked in housing for 30 years.

“Yes there are tough days but it’s also very satisfying when you offer a house to a 70-year-old woman who has been waiting for two years.”