$92.2m homelessness funding announcement kickstarts new service initiative in Albany

Albany’s homelessness support services have welcomed a State Government commitment to inject $92.2 million into the sector. The pre-budget announcement dedicates $70.2m to continue more than 120 vital services, and $9m to expand the Housing First Support Service in regional WA, including introducing the program to Albany. The wraparound initiative will establish an easy-to-access network of services for individual cases — a program WA Council of Social Service president Mark Glasson says has had significant success in other regions. “The HFSS is a collaboration between local providers to identify people that are sleeping rough and connect them to services in the community,” he said. “What is really a challenge when you are homeless is connecting all the services you need, so HFSS take on that role. “Where it operates in Geraldton and Mandurah, they are two of only three locations in the country where the number of street-present homeless has actually fallen in the past year.” According to a City of Albany report published in February, Albany has more than 160 people experiencing homelessness. Albany Youth Support Association deputy chair Simon London said most of them were young people, many travelling far to reach the services offered by the Albany city hub, which in turn often struggled to accommodate them because of a lack of funds. “What the data says about homelessness is that it really impacts young people much more significantly — more than 55 per cent are under 29,” he said. “Youth homelessness and homelessness more broadly is not just an Albany issue, it’s a regional issue as we have a significant number of people coming from across the Great Southern to access our services. “There’s a lot of pressures in the sectors in terms of delivering services, and it becomes increasingly difficult to deliver these without that consistent level of support and commitment from governments. “We welcome this announcement and it needs to be an ongoing developing space because currently, the capacity that we have is not meeting demand. “ WACOSS chief executive Louise Giolitto said the announcement came at an opportune time. “These services were starting to be cut because the contracts were so old, so this is extremely welcomed,” she said. “Albany support services mainly had to rely on donations and philanthropic activities to make sure they could keep their doors open, and the level of services they provide kept up and maintained. “These services are currently being provided, but at the goodwill of community service organisations in this town. “Now there will be an injection of funds into Albany.” The remaining funding will support an expansion of the HFSS in the metropolitan area and various homelessness referral services.