Homelessness: Learning from Perth

The last week went by in a blur. Mostly because for 70% of it I had such bad jet lag I didn't know what day or time it was, and sometimes my own name...!

Despite that, I still managed a fascinating and inspiring learning exchange with a range of organisations working across Western Australia (WA), and Perth Metropolitan area. This included visits and meetings with state-wide organisations and alliances, as well as providers, and shadowing a great outreach team on their evening shift. A couple of highlights for me were:

• An aged care facility for people with a history of homelessness: across Australia, federal health/care funding is being used to develop facilities for people who have more complex needs, who are frail, and need more care than can be provided in other services. These are permanent homes (the one I saw was on the same site as a homelessness hostel), and more flexible and tolerant for this client group than traditional care homes would be. They are able to take younger clients (e.g. in 50s) and those whose disabilities are more hidden (e.g. self neglect). I heard some incredible stories about people who were so poorly on entry, but who had greatly improved through the safety, care and health interventions provided in this setting. The manager also made it clear that there were high risks of deterioration should the care be taken away. This is a gap in our provision in England, and I'm hoping to do more thinking on this when I'm back.
• I visited two Aboriginal led organisations, and had multiple conversations regarding cultural competence in addressing homelessness. First Nations people represent 3% of the Australian population, but over 50% of people experiencing homelessness. Structural inequality is significant and there is unfortunately, still a lot of racism. However there are 'by and for' organisations that are offering a different approach, as well as trying to upskill others in the sector. I had a really interesting conversation with one organisation's research team about 'data sovereignty' and attempting to challenge how and what data is collected, and how it's used to drive homelessness strategy. They enabled a completely Aboriginal-informed research project which can be found here. Another organisation, worked to develop a new set of Housing First principles for work with Aboriginal people, that are culturally informed and ensure services meet the cultural needs of those they support. They can be found here alongside a cultural framework for service delivery.
• Finally, I ended my week with a wonderful community housing provider (social landlord) who have developed a new 'Supportive Landlord Program' to provide a better service to tenants with experience of homelessness and other needs. They recognised that their traditional tenancy management model was not intensive enough for people who require more tenancy sustainment support. Their general needs housing officers may have a portfolio of 170 tenancies. In their new model, the housing officers have no more than 100, and in many cases, 75 tenancies. They do not replicate/provide support offered by others, but can provide more intensive tenancy management including being responsive to issues in the property/with neighbours, liaising and signposting to partner agencies, enabling managed moves etc. It's certainly a model that could be easily replicated in the UK to improve homelessness prevention in social housing.

My trip so far has also made me reflect on our own systems and structures for tackling homelessness. I'll share some of that in my next blog. Until then, I'm off to explore Sydney :)