COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE 1 - cairns.qld.gov.au · Corporate and Operational Plans: CORPORATE PLAN To deliver the recommendations contained in the Homelessness in Douglas report

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Agenda – Community Services Committee 10 April 2013 - #3919799

COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE

10 APRIL 2013 1

DOUGLAS COMMUNITY HOUSING GROUP HOMELESSNESS PROJECT

Kerrie Hawkes: 10/21/13-01: #3875774

RECOMMENDATION:

It is recommended that Council approves the continued involvement of Council officers working with partner organisations to implement the recommendations contained in the ‘Homelessness in Douglas’ report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the Douglas Community Housing Group (DCHG) homelessness project and outline the impact on Council. DCHG formed in mid-2011 after community services staff and community members in Mossman, Mossman Gorge, Daintree, Port Douglas and surrounds raised concerns regarding levels of overcrowding, rough sleeping and lack of services for people in Douglas experiencing homelessness. DCHG members knew of the need for support and additional social housing, but conversations with Department of Communities (Housing & Homelessness) revealed these needs were not reflected on social housing waiting lists. In January 2012 DCHG successfully secured a $15,000 grant from the State Government’s Building Rural Communities Fund auspiced by Council. Council contributed $6,500 to the project enabling DCHG to engage a consultant. The Cairns Institute James Cook University was appointed to research and compile a report quantifying and categorising the level and types of homelessness in the Douglas area, and provide recommendations addressing the issue. The recommendations from the Homelessness in Douglas report require significant involvement from Council’s Community Development Unit in a coordinated approach between the Cairns and Mossman offices and external agencies, reliant heavily upon the Team Leader Mossman to take the lead role. Council’s Planning, Social planning and Safe Communities Officers have been formally requested by DCHG to provide relevant data aligned to the report to include pre amalgamation data and for DCHG activities to be incorporated into Council’s International Safe Communities reaccreditation process.

BACKGROUND:

Homelessness is often considered to represent people who are rough sleeping or living in improvised dwellings. Unfortunately, staying with family or friends for extended periods, couch surfing and overcrowding are also considered homelessness.

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There are three levels of homelessness; primary homelessness, secondary homelessness and tertiary homelessness. Primary homelessness refers to the total lack of shelter - a person living on the streets and in makeshift shelters, or sleeping rough. Secondary homelessness describes a temporary situation in which the individual is staying with friends or relatives for short periods of time - a person who frequently moves from one temporary shelter to another, including refuges and friends’ homes; and Tertiary homelessness denotes a situation in which an individual lives in a caravan park, boarding house or emergency accommodation, with no certainty of tenure - persons with no security of lease nor access to private facilities. According to the current Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the total population of the Douglas area is 10,829. 8.4% (911) of this population identify as Indigenous. The ABS also indicates that Douglas has seven rough sleepers, 16 people in temporary housing/dwellings and 42 people in crowded dwellings. Anecdotal evidence collected during the development of the Homelessness Report indicates that there may be as many as 200 people homeless in Douglas on any given night. This number captures all levels of homelessness. Many homeless people have complicating contributory factors such as suffering from domestic violence, substance abuse or mental health issues which must also be addressed. Douglas has recognised gaps in services to assist such people: a shortage of drug and alcohol rehabilitation services or detox services; no emergency, supported and short-term accommodation options and no mental health residential rehabilitation service. The Homelessness in Douglas Report has also identified that the majority of organisations in the Douglas region are providing homeless services even though they are not funded to do so. Over a six month period four key agencies in Douglas had contact with approximately 550 clients that sought advice or assistance with housing related issues. There is one Indigenous housing service which has a charter to work directly with homeless Indigenous people in Douglas. This is mainly self-funded. Access Community Housing, located at Westcourt in Cairns, has a total of 30 units for transitional housing located in Port Douglas, Mossman, Cooya, Newell and Wonga. As at 15 October 2012 they were all presently tenanted. The criteria for applicants are that they need to be registered with Queensland Housing as a High or Very High Need. There are no other services or agencies which are funded to facilitate short term homelessness assistance, apart from funding for emergency relief payments provided to neighbourhood and community centres. There are no agencies funded regarding long-term solutions to homelessness. A number of community services face very strong operational demand to respond to the immediate needs of their homeless clients. This places a significant burden on agency resourcing and on staff, including causing stress. The Federal Government’s main homelessness objectives are to halve overall homelessness and offer supported accommodation to all rough sleepers by 2020, with current national homelessness initiatives outlined in Which Way Home and The Road Home (Homelessness Taskforce 2008).

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The Cairns Homeless Community Action Plan (HCAP) is a three year plan that identified 38 actions to help reduce homelessness in Cairns. However; the Douglas area was not included. Cairns Regional Council has always taken a collaborative approach to dealing with issues of homelessness within the Cairns region. Council is a signatory to the Local Level Agreement on Rough Sleeping and Public Space Intoxication (LLA) which focuses on the coordination of Cairns-based services to people in public places who are homeless or displaced and intoxicated. Council officers sit on the Douglas Community Housing Group, the Cairns Homelessness Project Group and the Cairns Homelessness Outreach Network. Council officers have been involved in the development of the HCAP through the Homelessness Implementation Plan Reference Group, the Homelessness Implementation Plan Leadership Group and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Working Group as well as through the community forums and general consultation process.

COMMENT:

The recommendations outlined in the DCHG Report involve government, community service providers and the wider community to support and develop a coordinated approach to delivering positive outcomes for people experiencing or who are at risk of homelessness. Aligning the report with HCAP initiatives will work towards reducing homelessness and the risk of future homelessness in the Douglas region.

Both the DCHG and HCAP reports recognise that while the most common perception of homelessness is of people living rough on the streets, larger numbers of homeless people in our community couch surf, live in camps/temporary shelters, caravan parks or motel rooms. Both reports aim to improve service provision to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Taking into account the risk factors which make people vulnerable to homelessness (e.g. domestic violence, unemployment, ill health (physical or mental); drug and alcohol addiction, financial crisis) and working with these service providers to prevent homelessness;

Improving services to support people struggling to maintain tenancies; Breaking the cycle of inter-generational risk of homelessness; Assisting people to secure and maintain long-term residences.

The priorities in the HCAP also recognise that responding to homelessness will require a coordinated approach from not just specialist homelessness and housing services but from a broad range of support services. There is also recognition that Douglas has significant gaps in the availability of support services and a lack of affordable housing options.

The priorities also reflect that some people who have experienced homelessness will have complex needs and will require longer-term support to stabilise their lives, become actively involved in their community or to obtain employment.

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The 38 actions in New Ways Home are aligned with the three strategic priority areas of Opening Doors: Queensland Strategy for Reducing Homelessness 2011-2014.

Helping people avoid becoming homeless – by improving housing outcomes for people exiting health facilities, child safety arrangements, prisons and youth detention facilities.

Helping people get ahead – by ensuring people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness have access to safe, affordable, well located and appropriate housing together with support and increased opportunities to get ahead through participation in education, training and employment.

Working together for stronger services – by better coordinating and integrating policies, programs and services, using and sharing data, and improving local case coordination.

DCHG Report recommendations requiring Council officer involvement: Recommendation 6: The DCHG continue to support the integration of Cairns Regional Council offices in Mossman and Cairns (Community Development Unit) regarding homelessness. Recommendation 7: The DCHG formally requires the (Acting) Team Leader Community Development, Cairns Regional Council (Cairns) to facilitate a road show of homelessness services from Cairns to Douglas. Recommendation 8: The DCHG formally request advice from the (Acting) Team Leader Community Development, Cairns Regional Council (Cairns) regarding incorporating DCHG activities into Council’s International Safe Communities reaccreditation process. Recommendation 11: DCHG members continue to work on establishing service network maps, through adapting existing tools (for example using Cairns Regional Council’s community service map as a base and requesting members to contribute to localised information). Recommendation 21: The DCHG monitor and refine the rough sleeper measurement project conducted between 1 February 2013 to 31 March 2013 and between 1 August 2013 to 30 September 2013 by Council Local Laws officers and Police Liaison Officers.

Recommendation 25: DCHG conduct a project involving Council Local Laws Officers and Police Liaison Officers to estimate the number of rough sleepers in both the wet and dry seasons. This will be indicative only as an attempt to begin quantifying the number of rough sleepers in the Douglas area. The process used to gather these figures provided a starting point for more interagency collaboration to more accurately measure the numbers of these homeless people. A project funded through in-kind existing daily activities by Council Local Laws Officers and Police Liaison Officers to count and categorise rough sleepers in known camps has been agreed by members of the DCHG and has been approved.

Recommendation 27: Continue written communication with Council’s Planning section to gain data on the number of dwellings in the region, how many bedrooms in dwellings, etc.

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Recommendation 30: Request Cairns Regional Council Social Planner provides relevant and appropriate data from the ABS 2011 Census data based on the finding of this report. This method will allow proxy measure to estimate the numbers of homeless people within statistical division areas, providing a calculator of the approximate measure of homelessness based on geographical areas. This is to then be triangulated against the on-going data collection exercise recommended above. The request for data from Social Planner is to include pre amalgamation data.

CONSULTATION:

The DCHG homelessness project was researched under JCU ethics approval and included four focus group workshops and interviews with a wide range of local service providers dealing with housing related issues in the Douglas area. Service providers also conducted surveys with clients to gauge type and levels of homelessness.

Government agencies represented at focus group workshops include: Department of Health (ATODS), Department of Housing & Public Works, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services, Queensland Police, Centrelink, Department of Education (Mossman State High School, Cairns Regional Council

Non-government agencies represented on focus group workshops include: James Cook University, Anglican Church, Anglicare, Douglas Shire Community Services Association Inc, Port Douglas Neighbourhood Centre, Bamanga Bubu Ngadimunku Inc, Break Thru, Elders Justice, Jawunkarra Family Support Service, RFDS, QCOSS, Diversicare, Housing & Homelessness, Access Community Housing, United Community Care, Bendigo Bank, Family Responsibilities Commission

Community members, Indigenous Elders

CONSIDERATIONS:

Corporate and Operational Plans: CORPORATE PLAN To deliver the recommendations contained in the Homelessness in Douglas report would assist in achieving a variety of corporate goals and objectives and in particular; Goal 2: Building Vibrant Communities 2.1 Implement a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to community health

and safety 2.2 Improve the quality and opportunities for use of public space across the region 2.6 Improve the capacity and wellbeing of valued areas of the community that

traditionally have difficulty being heard In addition to aligning with the Corporate Plan there is a strong affiliation with the Community Development Strategic Plan and the Reconciliation Action Plan.

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Policy: Australian Government White Paper 2008, The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness. National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness Queensland Compact between State Government and Non-Government Organisations 2008 Opening Doors: Queensland Strategy for Reducing Homelessness 2011-2014 Financial and Risk: This activity was delivered within budget. Recommendations outlined in the report involving Council staff do not require budget. Options: That Council notes the Homelessness in Douglas – It’s Much More Than Not Having a Roof Over Your Head Report That Council approves the continued involvement of Council officers working with partner organisations to implement the recommendations contained in the Report. That Council does not note the Homelessness in Douglas – It’s Much More Than Not Having a Roof Over Your Head Report

That Council does not approve the continued involvement of Council officers working with partner organisations to implement the recommendations contained in the Report.

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment 1: Homelessness in Douglas – It’s Much More Than Not Having a Roof Over Your Head Report (Extract - Executive Summary and Recommendations attached) Kerrie Hawkes A/Team Leader Community Development Douglas Kerrie Still Manager Libraries and Community Development Ian Lowth General Manager, Community Sport & Cultural Services

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COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE 1 - cairns.qld.gov.au · Corporate and Operational Plans: CORPORATE PLAN To deliver the recommendations contained in the Homelessness in Douglas report