Page 1808 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020

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living in boarding houses

living in other temporary lodgings

living in severely crowded dwellings

Table 1. Number and percentage of adults and children who are homeless in the ACT, 2011 and 2016.

(Data available at the Chamber Support Office).

2. Housing ACT is contributing to whole of government monitoring of the impact of COVID19 by providing regular reports on change in service demand. In relation to homelessness, Housing ACT is monitoring the following:

Street to Home assistance and outreach provided to people sleeping rough;

OneLink service activity and support;

Domestic Violence Crisis Service client contacts; and

Safer Families Assistance, a $2000 grant provided to sustain or re-establish a home in the private rental market following the experience of family or domestic violence.

The results are as follows:

Street to Home has seen an increase in the number of people assisted through outreach support to people sleeping rough in March and April (32 per month) compared to November 2019 (25 in that month);

OneLink provided a higher number of occasions of one-off assistance (on average 339 occasions of one-off assistance per month in the January to March 2020 quarter compared with 263 in the previous quarter), and higher than the 259 in the corresponding quarter in 2019.

OneLink has a higher number of clients on the waiting list at the end of each month (on average 374 clients in the January to March 2020 quarter). This is higher than 301 clients in the previous quarter (October-December 2019), and higher than 266 clients during the corresponding quarter in 2019.

In addition to the placements of clients into specialist homelessness services by OneLink, the demand for emergency accommodation is being met through OneLink’s increased use of brokerage for accommodation. Since 28 March 2020 to 5 June 2020, OneLink has provided 529 nights of accommodation, assisting 139 individuals or families. This is compared to eight individuals or families in March 2019, four in April 2019 and four in May 2019.

The Domestic Violence Crisis Service received an average of 124 incoming contacts per day during May 2020. Longer time series data is not currently available.

Safer Families Assistance has been paid to 130 individuals or families over the current financial year to 31 May 2020.

3. The rate of repeat homelessness for all people in the ACT cannot be directly measured. The Report on Government Services provides a proxy measure taken from the


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