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Early intervention and creative, compassionate communities are the keys to stemming the tide of homelessness, according to a leading project manager on housing.
Sherri Makepeace says once a homeless person hits a service system it takes a lot more time and expense to house them.
“We need to step in before people present as homeless at a service provider’s doors,” Ms Makepeace said.
“Once they hit crisis point other factors, such as family violence, drug and alcohol issues, and relationship breakdown, start overtaking.
“However early intervention is not about just paying someone’s rent; it’s about sustainable support so these people are not back again in a few weeks.”
Ms Makepeace worked on the national homelessness action plan for the Murrumbidgee (taking in Albury to Young, Deniliquin to Griffith) from 2010 to 2014 and has helped manage a range of housing projects over the past 10 years.
From her experiences, she believes a co-ordinated approach is needed at every level - from grassroots community campaigns and local council through to state and national governments - to truly tackle the complexities of homelessness.
But at the core of any plan there needs to be a “housing first” approach, according to Ms Makepeace who is currently delivering a unit on homelessness to community services students at the Riverina Institute of TAFE Albury campus.
“There is usually a range of complex and individual factors that affect people who are at risk of homelessness or who are already in crisis,” she said.
“But these people can’t work on their mental health, their job-seeking skills or their education if they do not have somewhere to go home to.”
“As part of the pilot project I was involved with, a property was allocated to a person with funding for basic household set-up and further support to help them get their life back together.
“This housing first approach with ‘wraparound’ support was very successful and has been embedded into the model for how homeless services should be delivered.”
At the end of the day, Ms Makepeace said the reality was there would never be enough affordable housing.
But she does believe what we do have could be better utilised.
Her vision, if you like, is that public housing would be used as a tool to provide people with the skills they need to eventually move out into private rental accommodation.
“There are many groups and service providers working very hard on this issue,” Ms Makepeace said.
“But in a way we need to work smarter, not harder.
“What worked well (in the project I managed) is that you bring each case to the table and from there work out who is best placed to help the person whether it be support with mental health, financial counselling, general health or independent living skills.
“There has to be a collaborative approach in delivering programs so that people do not re-enter the system and we get the best possible outcomes because there will never be enough affordable housing.”
And, perhaps surprisingly, Ms Makepeace said it’s not all about demanding more money from government.
“I think it’s fair to say people don’t always see opportunities in their own backyards,” she said.
“We need creative approaches to obtaining more infrastructure.
“I believe that requires a bottom up, not a top down approach – it needs to be community driven.”
Ms Makepeace said finding innovative solutions required strong community leadership – and compassion.
“Someone needs to stand up and say, ‘How are we going to do this?’” she said.
“We need to explore alternative solutions, whether it be donations of land or housing, or other ideas.”
There are not-for-profit real estate agencies in Melbourne, for example, that operate primarily as a social enterprises and offer discounts or free rent for disadvantaged people.
Heather Holst, chief executive of Melbourne housing service HomeGround, said there was a desire in the community to do good.
''I think a lot of people are quite disturbed by the level of homelessness and the amount of housing pressure,'' she said.
''This is a way for people to do something practical about that.''
Ms Makepeace, who manages freelance projects through consultancy business Chitoda, is currently working on another practical solution to tackling homelessness in the Griffith area.
An app which helps the homeless quickly and easily locate services available in their region will be launched on August 14 through the Linking Communities Network.
