Housing and homelessness

The Western Australian Legislative Council Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations conducted a new inquiry into the financial administration of services addressing homelessness in Western Australia.

The Salvation Army made a submission to this inquiry with recommendations for how to improve the feedback and delivery of these services.

This inquiry was to identify the key barriers to achieving better housing outcomes for people experiencing homelessness and victim survivors of Family and Domestic Violence in Western Australia. Some of the considerations of this inquiry were the effectiveness of current funding and delivery of services, assessing the ‘All Paths Lead to a Home’ strategy, as well as analysing existing data systems and how this informs service delivery.

The Salvation Army submission outlines some of the key barriers to achieving better housing outcomes for West Australians. These include: the shortfall of funding to meet client needs, the short-term nature of housing contracts, the insufficient supply of transitional and long-term housing solutions, and difficulty in retaining staff in rural and remote areas. While The Salvation Army commends the Western Australian Government for prioritising a ‘Housing First’ approach, our submission accentuates the importance of addressing the severe shortage of affordable housing.

We also provide numerous recommendations for addressing these barriers, such as increasing the funding of these services, investing in incentives in regional and rural areas to attract suitable and qualified staff, and to fulfil a commitment for longer-term service agreements for providers of homelessness and social housing services.

Finally, we conclude that due to a lack of available and accessible exit points from homelessness and Family and Domestic Violence services, the system has become blocked. Not only are people trapped in the crisis and transitional system (necessitating stays well beyond optimal or funded duration), but others are turned away due to the lack of throughput.

The Salvation Army will continue to advocate for the implementation of our recommendations to help address the barriers preventing West Australians from obtaining better homelessness and housing services.