Despite a decrease in the official number of Sydney’s homeless, experts are warning of rising numbers of street sleepers unless more affordable housing is made available.
The City of Sydney’s homelessness unit has released figures from its bi-annual street count, showing a 13 per cent drop in the amount of street sleepers compared to February 2012. However, Liz Giles, Manager of the City of Sydney’s homeless unit, says the numbers, dropping from 310 to 269 street sleepers, will rise if affordable housing remains stagnant.
“It’s not unreasonable to predict that unless new programs that make housing available come online, there is a good chance that we’ll actually start to see those numbers rise,” Ms Giles said.
Sydney’s two major housing sources, Common Ground and Platform-70, have reached near capacity since opening in 2010, creating a greater need for affordable housing in the area.
“Affordable housing is the basic infrastructure of a healthy, functioning community. If we don’t have enough housing for the number of people who are homeless we are still going to have homelessness,” Ms Giles said.
But while affordable housing is needed, experts have also called for more emphasis to be placed on support and outreach services.
Felicity Reynolds, CEO of The Mercy Foundation, says the approach to solving long-term homelessness needs to be flexible. “There are some people who experience chronic homelessness who have some real issues in their life that will need ongoing support, and in the past they may have failed in housing because that support hasn’t been available,” Ms Reynolds said.
“You do need to have some different approaches, you do need to have street outreach services and you do need to have options for permanent housing and support in order to end their homelessness,” she said.
Over 50 per cent of people who are chronically homeless in Sydney have a mental illness, while 30 per cent have brain injuries and 60 per cent suffer from drug and alcohol problems.
The City of Sydney spends approximately $28,700 per year on each individual suffering from chronic homelessness, largely on health and justice services.
The council currently aims to have 15 per cent of all housing classified as affordable and accessible by 2030 and long-term homelessness ended by 2017.
However, a commitment from both the state and federal government is needed to achieve this goal. “We need a concerted effort from the NSW government as well as the federal government,” Ms Giles said. “Without this, the significant progress we have made to reduce homelessness would be completely undone … I think that’s the real story.”
