Local Government’s role in ending homelessness is a national opportunity

This week at the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA’s) National General Assembly – Australia’s 537 councils have a significant opportunity to showcase all that we do for communities right across the country. It is an important time to also raise the experiences and challenges that local government faces in the wake of our homelessness crisis – and how a defined and funded role will make a huge difference for Federal and State government.

Last week, as part of the Churchill Trust’s Policy Futures program, I had the opportunity to visit the Australian Parliament and advocate to elected members, advisors and senior public servants about local government’s role in ending homelessness. Why we needed to be part of a National Housing and Homelessness Plan and have access to funding that will help us deliver place based solutions.

You can read the pitch I made at our event last Thursday below.

I hope that this has helped set the scene for what might come of this week’s events.

I went to Canberra, aware that making a pitch to the Australian Government would not be easy – local government is an arm of the States and Territories, managed under individual Acts. We have very little to do with the Federal Government. And apart from extremely limited Financial Assistance Grants the Commonwealth funds the States, not us.

Also, and importantly, local government has neither the money nor the mandate to respond to homelessness. I heard very early on in my research that we cannot ask for a slice of the limited funding pie because by doing that we’d be competing with homelessness services, who are struggling to deliver what the country needs, despite recent doubling of allocated amounts. That makes absolute sense to me.

Additionally, many local governments don’t want to have a mandated role in homelessness response, seeing that as a form of cost shifting.

But as Australia’s homelessness and housing situation worsens, Councils all across the country are getting involved whether they like it or not, and if they are involved then they need to be so in the right way – not making matters worse.

With that in mind, I see our collective approach as three-fold:

1)????? Raise awareness. Just getting us on the agenda is an important first step, because to be fair, no one is thinking of us right now. Talking about the role local government plays in homelessness response and what we can do to prevent homelessness is vital if we are to make any progress (read my Policy Futures article for more about that).

2)????? Include Local Government in the National Housing and Homelessness Plan. This is past a fleeting mention, but rather seeing us acknowledged for the role and contribution we can play in housing (of course) and in important spaces like homelessness prevention and, when needed, crisis response.

3)????? Establish direct funding lines that enable what we do best – place-based community response. We are not here to take funds away from important frontline services. We can play an additional role that complements and enhances current efforts. Think data collection, service coordination, response collaboration, communication – and importantly, prevention that is enabled through the local contacts we maintain across our communities. (see my Churchill Fellowship report – Everybody’s Business - for more on this)

I left Canberra last week excited by how much we can do, but we need to keep on it.

Below is what I said at our parliament house event last week – I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas:

The Australian Government has a 32 billion dollar plan to fix our country’s chronic housing shortage.

Given the circumstances we face in Australia - that is a great step.

But this money – and any that we invest into housing in the future will never be enough - unless we also prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.?

In the UK, where austerity measures cut public spending significantly, but rates of homelessness kept growing, government services were forced to become smarter and get more for their money.

In Newcastle – one of the locations I visited as part of my Churchill Fellowship – homelessness prevention was the answer.

By educating and equipping their local workforce to spot the risk factors and act before homelessness hit crisis point - they have saved lives and money – preventing more than 25,000 people from becoming homeless in a six year period.

We all know it costs more to fix something that is already broken. For years public health experts have hammered into us that prevention is better than a cure.

With 200,000 people working in 537 councils and operating in every corner of Australia, Local Government is the perfect partner in homelessness prevention.

Local government officers see homelessness close up. They work in parks, libraries, community centres. They interact with single people, families, the young, the old. They know our communities inside out.

Many witness the impacts of homelessness every day. But their role is limited, with very few funding opportunities.

We can look at this issue in a new and smarter way. So now let me tell you the good news…. Now is a great time for the Australian Government to act.

-????????? Include local government in the national housing and homelessness plan

-????????? Use the new national Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness to guide states and territories in working with local government on prevention efforts

-????????? initiate direct funding mechanisms that scale up a nation-wide focus on homelessness prevention.

Local Government needs to be engaged, funded and empowered to end homelessness – and with a few actions on your part - they can do that before the crisis begins.

Read my full Policy Futures Article here:

https://policy-futures.centre.uq.edu.au/files/20553/Policy-Futures-Leanne-Mitchell.pdf

Read more about my work to help local government end homelessness: www.ltmitchell.com.au

Thanks to the many who helped me with this work and who are doing a lot to support local government in responding to homelessness.

Especially my peer reviewers Emma Greenhalgh and Professor Cameron Parsell.

And also Deborah Wilkinson Council of Capital City Lord Mayors Australian Local Government Association Linda Scott (GAICD) Kade Denton Kelly Grigsby Kat Panjari Michael Edrich Kath Snell Jackson Hills John Engeler John Smith Sherri Bruinhout Liz de Chastel RPIA (Life Fellow) Glenn Menner Louise Kuramoto

Winston Churchill Trust (Australia) Rachael Coghlan PhD Nicola Raymond

Read the full Policy Futures publication https://policy-futures.centre.uq.edu.au/reform-agenda