Transcript
Brisbane Youth Service submission to the Queensland Housing Strategy; Working together for better housing and sustainable communities
June 2016
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Background With a vision to provide ‘New Futures for Young People’, Brisbane Youth Service (BYS) has been operating in Fortitude Valley since 1977. In that time we have helped tens of thousands of young people (aged 12-25) experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless, and their accompanying children. We assist vulnerable young people to find and maintain appropriate housing, address physical & mental health issues and establish successful relationships and support networks. Services include a range of emergency and longer term support programs such as: • Housing support • Health services • Emergency Relief • Support for young parents • Support for young women This submission will respond to particular questions in the discussion paper, pertinent to young people and relevant to the knowledge and experience of this organisation. Case studies have also been included to demonstrate in real terms, learnings and successes of a human services approach to finding and sustaining housing with young people.
THEME 1: SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES How do we create an environment that enables a human services approach to housing that puts people at the centre in Queensland? A person centred approach requires a clear understanding of the characteristics of cohorts within a community and then of individual needs and capabilities. A youth lens is an important starting point for human services approach that is able to respond to the needs of young people as a sub-population group. Models of service that effectively respond to young people have a particular character. They need to both respond to presenting needs and enable a young person’s capacity to work toward transition to independent adult wellbeing. The youth focussed response is cognisant of developmental experience and identity, fosters resilience and is underpinned by the development of supporting networks, and appropriate and safe relationships to support this transition. It is important to remember though, that young people as a population group are not homogenous. They have diverse pathways into homelessness and require diverse strategies to best support pathways to independent and sustainable housing. ‘Homelessness Pathways’ literature has been helpful to assist understanding housing from a person centred perspective. It is important to understand the experience of a young person for whom affordability is the key housing barrier alongside another individual whose pathway to homelessness involved trauma associated with family violence, for example. The ability to Identify need and a toolkit from which to draw the most appropriate response are important elements in creating a human services approach to housing. Identification tools such as the Youth Vi SPDAT enable agencies to prioritise and to quantify a response. The real benefit 1
however is at a regional level, when identification tools are able to be collectively used, providing shared regional capability to prioritise responses . The QHIP has unfortunately not hit the mark as a useful identification tool. It is variably applied, and its assessment process is not well trusted by practitioners. Data does not illustrate need or priority at a regional level. QHIP being built outside the shared SHIP / SRS homelessness database presents as a significant barrier to efficient and effective delivery. Providing the right response at the right time, to the right individual relies on flexible modes of intervention. Two under-funded products that would assist a person centred approach are Mobile Support and Brokerage. The expansion of the Mobile Support funded output is essential to activating a person centred response. It is vital that support be able to move alongside young people as they transition through and out of their homelessness experience. The following case study evidences the role of mobile support. Case study 1 Julie is a 22 year old young woman. Julie was a tenant in a community housing studio apartment though felt unable to stay in the property due to a traumatic event that had occurred there. A mobile support worker visited and worked with Julie from the address that she was couch surfing. Consistent home visits, advocacy to the housing provider and a supported referral to a youth friendly psychologist were part of the emotional and practical support provided to assist her to sustain her tenancy until alternative accommodation could be sourced for the young woman. She was nominated and successfully obtained a long term social housing property. In the process of moving to this new property, Julie was admitted to hospital on an involuntary mental health treatment order. The youth worker continued to provide support to the Julie, coordinating care with hospital staff and other specialist services, over a period of 4 months. Mobile support continued as she was able to access day release to visit her new property and to organise furniture and establishing herself a new home. The youth worker is continuing to coordinate with Julie, her transition from hospital to community and will continue to provide follow up support in her new home as she recovers. Brokerage can be used across the housing spectrum. It is particularly useful in early intervention, eg: to sustain someone’s accommodation after a crisis but also useful in opening doors by overcoming barriers to access housing and to establish a tenancy after a period of homeless. Brokerage is explored further later. What do the department and other service partners need to do to operate more effectively as human service providers? A shared Queensland Government Housing Strategy is an important starting point. Housing and homelessness work is ethically complex, with the Department and service partners working in an environment of competing demands. Establishing a vision and aspirational but achievable targets will help to drive consistency in this environment. A strategy should clearly define some agreed practice principles that are evidenced in research and previous practice. Shared principles regarding access, affordability, prioritisation and quality of support are required. It is vital that these principles are reflected in service agreements, and that
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practice arising from principles is clearly articulated and supported by the Department and service partners. A current example is the principle of duration of need. There is a mis-match between a ‘duration of need’ principle and a contracted throughput target that defines a specific period of time. Service partners, concerned about meeting service agreement targets are pressured to forgo ‘duration of need’ of service to deliver the throughput. There are many instances of this occurring in the provision of immediate, transitional supported accommodation, and community housing. Another example where the unintended consequences of the Department’s social housing policy impacts outcomes for young people is detailed in the young family’s situation below. Case Study 1: A Young Women with three children secured a property with a Community Housing Provider. BYS assisted with tenancy sustainment and family support. Prior to obtaining this property this family had an application with the Department of Housing and Public Works, prioritised as high need. Once the family moved to the Community Housing property their prioritisation was downgraded from high to moderate need due to the ‘family having current, suitable housing’. As such, they were now considered ineligible for the Community Housing, resulting in being issued with a notice to leave. Attempts were made to apply for private rental housing but the young family were unable to access these options. A return to couch surfing and homelessness became a probability once again. This caused a large amount of stress and unnecessary anxiety to this young family with potential impacts on the children’s education and wellbeing as well as losing furniture and other possessions. As this example illustrates, social housing policy needs to take into account the length of time often required for significant change to occur. Issues resulting in high need prioritisation are not necessarily changed with the allocation of a property only. Supports and time is often required to make lasting changes to a young family’s ability to access private accommodation. There are significant risks arising from current policy, potentially placing people back into the cycle of homelessness. A shared commitment across key Departments will be important. A human services approach to housing acknowledges that housing isn’t the only issue on the table, and may not be the core issue. This is particularly the case for young people where family breakdown or violence is driving risk of homelessness, school is an early identifier of risk or where young people are exiting institutions. Transition points for young people carry the most risk to housing instability and homelessness. Transitions from care, from detention or hospitalisation and changes in education require planning and support to minimise risk. Integration across the Department of Communities, Education and Justice becomes imperative to outcomes for young people in this context. The structure and management of funding agreements drives the delivery of effective human services. Stability reinforces the capacity of services to focus on continuous improvement and delivery of high quality services. Funding 5 year agreements would benefit effective human service provision. For young people, continuing to fund diverse
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An effective service system holds the capacity to respond to young people’s diverse pathways into homelessness. For the Department, it is important to continue to fund diversity to be responsive to this environment. Youth specific services are specialists at working with young people. Speciality within the youth sector is also important. Some programs will be more effective in the early identification and early intervention space, others in supporting quality housing transitions or sustaining tenancies with young people. Young people are not homogenous and require flexibility in in a service system that can provide nuanced responses. What are the opportunities for the non-government sector (private and community) to achieve better outcomes for people and communities through housing? Specialist youth homelessness services have previously demonstrated that when supported, they are capable of driving innovation toward improved outcomes for young people. The previously funded Queensland Youth Housing Coalition facilitated opportunities for organisations to identify and respond to service gaps or service system barriers. Motivating change across the industry can be a difficult process and is best sustained when services are directly involved in the reform process. In recent years, agencies have been less active in state wide policy and practice development. Individual organisations have been engaged in innovation but broad based change has occurred less. Organisations’ capacity to consider different ways of working and opportunities to integrate responses must be resourced to reap benefit on this scale. Collaborative case work between community housing providers and specialist support providers in the Non – Government sector, presents real opportunities for better housing outcomes. ‘Under 1 Roof’ is an example of Non-government organisations investing in shared service delivery toward outcomes for young people. This is outlined in detail later in this submission.
THEME 2: HOUSING AFFORDABILITY How can we improve people’s access to housing by making better use of existing assets, subsidies and incentives? For example, incentivising the market and non-government sector to respond to people and communities. Economic access is a common barrier to housing young people who are unemployed or underemployed in Queensland, regardless of background or homelessness experience. Young people receiving Youth Allowance are particularly vulnerable to exclusion from independent housing options. The impact of affordability is felt across the homelessness / housing spectrum resulting in closed doors to the private market but also pressure on social housing and specialist homelessness services that should be targeting complexity of need, beyond affordability. The Department needs to open increased access to social housing for young people as a population group, excluded by affordability issues. The current quota of social housing for this target group is inadequate and must be addressed. Rental subsidies present an effective mechanism to support young people’s access across the board, hopefully ensuring the right housing pathway and response to the individual. Financial pressure is a reality for all housing providers and young people’s lack of income presents an additional financial 4
risk. Consequently community housing providers house a low quota of young people comparable to adult tenants as rent, calculated at percentage of lower income, impacts their business’s financial viability. The Department could consider contracting community housing providers to reach a specified quota of stock allocated to young people, and offset financial risks of these providers. Specialist Youth homelessness services are under similar pressure. The vast majority of BYS temporary accommodation tenants are Centrelink recipients, many receiving payments at the lower end of the spectrum such as Youth Allowance or Newstart. More than half of the properties are tenanted by single occupants or single parents with children. This means that rental income (calculated using the Community Housing Electronic Rent Calculation Tool) is consistently low. There has also been a growing number of tenants who have no income and therefore unable to pay rent or be supported to transition to independent housing, until income goals are achieved. Brisbane Youth Service could operate at a significant projected deficit across 23 properties without exemption from long-term maintenance arrangements. In addition to subsidising rental costs, young people’s limited income often requires Brisbane Youth Service to subsidise electricity and gas bills until financial stability allows them to be account holders in their own right. Other financial impacts of crisis turnover include higher and more frequent cleaning and maintenance expenses and house set-up costs. These costs can include removal expenses and purchase of furniture, white goods, manchester and kitchen wares. Young people will very rarely have the full required bond available to them when homeless. To comply with the Homelessness Program Guidelines regarding financial accessibility, BYS chooses to support young people to pay bond in instalments where they are unable to afford to pay bond upfront, rather than deny access to young people on financial grounds. The issue of bond loans has been further exacerbated by the Department’s recent policy to deny CAP tenants access to bond loans across the board. The reality of young people’s limited income and high tenancy turnover means that bond instalments rarely result in bond paid in full. Young people’s experience of crisis, domestic violence and limited previous tenancy experience means that unplanned maintenance is regularly required as a result of tenant damage. Other Specialist Youth Homelessness Services are faced with this similar circumstance and financial pressure. The Department’s Homelessness Program Guidelines are clear regarding financial accessibility to crisis accommodation services. BYS is concerned that some youth homelessness providers are being forced to deny access to those most vulnerable so as to make ends meet. Managing the economic realities of housing this target group is fundamental to compliance with program guidelines and practice principles of housing the most vulnerable. The Department must employ mechanisms of maintenance exemptions and bond loans for all crisis accommodation providers. This would support improved capacity for practice aligned with Homelessness Program Guidelines. What are the benefits of creating an affordable rental sector? What needs to happen for that to be successful? Diversity of people’s homelessness experience means that some individuals will be able to sustain housing in the private market if it were more affordable. Others’ needs will require appropriately supported accommodation in social housing over the short, medium or long term.
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An affordable rental sector generates available exit points for those capable of transition at the time of readiness. Currently, a backlog exists for young social housing tenants, whether in public or community housing, or in specialist youth homelessness services. Brokerage including for rental subsidies, is an important mechanism to enable access to the rental sector for young people on low incomes. Brokerage can be used to purchase a regular subsidy over an agreed period or to meet costs associated with access to the rental sector. Establishing tenancies where young people are transitioning from homelessness or have never tenanted previously, is a costly exercise. Moving, furniture, food, rent and bond (if ineligible for a bond loan) are significant. BYS relies on fundraising and partnership with other providers to provide this opportunity for young people but is regularly unable to meet the demand for this service.
THEME 3: RESPONSIVE HOUSING SYSTEM How do we better develop and integrate the housing and homelessness service systems so they operate as one housing assistance system centred on peoples’ needs and what is required to make this happen? Effective integration occurs beyond case coordination alone. It involves collaborative policy approaches, shared practice principles and opportunities to co-design responses at a macro, community level. Under 1 Roof is an example of agencies investing in integration across macro, mezzo and micro tiers, driving shared policy, principles, practice approaches and case collaboration around individuals. This is valuable but intensive work involving ‘both case managers, property manages and CEOs of small, medium and large housing and homelessness services. The industry must be adequately resourced to manage this true integration. Funding agreements need to value this function and collaborative meetings must be included as a measurable output. The other foundation to a multi - layered integration framework is a common vision. As discussed previously in this submission, shared strategic targets and agreed practice principles will assist to drive and to sustain an integrated housing assistance system. How do we best support collaborative regional and local place-based initiatives? For example, how do we make best use of our collective limited resources to achieve outcomes for people? The 500 lives 500 homes campaign of which BYS is an active partner, has provided important learnings. The registry fortnight established accurate point in time data of need in the Brisbane community. Using this data, both housing and support providers were able to identify need and collaborate to provide responses, appropriate to the diversity of vulnerability. The weakness of the campaign was that data was only point in time and has become less useful and accurate over time. The Department needs to invest in a shared screening tool and database that allows housing and support providers a shared picture of current community need and informs prioritisation according to vulnerability. This tool and database must align with the AIHW national dataset to avoid duplication of labour and software. As mentioned previously, the design of QHIP outside the current reporting software and framework has detracted from the effectiveness of this tool.
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Collaborative regional and place based initiatives rely on shared regional or place based data. There is an opportunity in the Housing Strategy to develop the foundations for this service system approach, working collectively to achieve known and shared outcomes for people in our communities.
Strategy development and more information This submission aims to inform the Department of Housing and Public Works Housing Strategy by accurately identifying some of the key issues and solutions relevant to housing outcomes for young people. Brisbane Youth Service supports the development of a person centred and integrated housing assistance system. The organisation trusts that this submission will prove useful to Strategy development, aligned with this vision. Themes and issues raised may benefit from more detailed conversation with this service and the youth sector more broadly, toward the most appropriate solutions. As such, please do not hesitate to contact this office should you require further information regarding points discussed above.
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