Our Pulse Session held on Wednesday, 10 February was the first for 2021 allowing updates from individuals and services across the sector to exchange information relating to the Western Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (Alliance) Strategy to End Homelessness.
Executive Officer for the Alliance John Berger hosted the session and ran through a number of updates.
Institute of Global Homelessness
The Alliance had formed a partnership with the Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) thanks to a five-thousand-dollar donation from the City of Perth and sponsorship from key homelessness services within Perth.
As part of this partnership the IGH are available to speak to the sector on the second Tuesday of each month at 8:00am WST. If you would like to join these sessions you can subscribe to the Alliance newsletter for details of upcoming sessions and to be included you will need to contact us on hello@endhomelessnesswa.com.
Housing First
Ruah Community Services have been appointed the coordinating agency – or ‘backbone’ – of the Housing First Homelessness Initiative (HFHI) late last year.
Ruah Community Services has, in partnership with St. Patrick’s Community Support Centre and Wungening Aboriginal Corporation, been awarded $6.9 million to provide accommodation and wraparound supports to people in need across the Perth metropolitan area.
Also, $6.8 million was awarded to Moorditj Mia ‘Strong Home’ program through an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) consortium. The partnership brings together Noongar Mia Mia, Wungening Aboriginal Corporation and Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation to provide culturally appropriate assertive outreach and support.
By-Name Lists (Perth & Fremantle)
The By-Name List for Perth has almost reached the “quality mark”, meaning enough agencies in both Perth and Fremantle are now trained and now contributing to the list to make the data reliable. This is a significant step as the quality data mark will allow us to reliably shape the ways things are being done by developing improvement projects and using the data to measure the impact or success of these changes.
At this point John Berger invited several speakers to share an update.
Tara Le Flohic – Lived Experience Advocate/Board Member: Shelter WA
Tara spoke about her recent experience of being interviewed for television news and how the process can be confronting for someone with lived experience. It was a reminder for organisations to be aware of the complexities involved when an organisation nominates someone with lived experience to speak to the media.
Tara is working with Shelter WA on a memorandum of understanding to be used between the media and a lived experience interviewee to make sure an interview does not exacerbate their vulnerability and that questions are asked in a safe manner.
Professor Paul Flatau - Director of the Centre for Social Impact
Professor Flatau explained how each of the innovative Alliance Evaluation documents ensure rigour around the strategy implementation. The documents comprise an Outcomes Measurement and Evaluation Framework, Dashboard and a Data Dictionary. The University are now undertaking a review of the latest data both nationally and statewide to update the Dashboard and status of homelessness in WA.
Iain Shields – Home Hub
Iain gave an overview of The Home Hub a platform which offers an inclusive platform with a vision to reduce wait times, make affordable housing more accessible, and benefit landlords’ bottom lines.
During the Perth Hills bushfire crisis, the website saw an increase in traffic and tens of households were able to find accommodation through the site during that period.
People who benefit from using The Home Hub are:
- On the housing waitlist or have been refused from the waitlist.
- Experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.
- Living with a disability.
Michala McMahon – Senior Project Worker – Ruah
Michala updated the work of the Zero Project. Ruah has received funding by the Department of Communities and Lotterywest to support four regional communities conduct Connections Week counts of people who are rough sleeping. This data will form their By-Name Lists.
A Connections Week (previously known as Registry Week) has been held in Rockingham, Geraldton and Mandurah. A Bunbury count will be held on Friday, 5 March.
Michala encouraged everyone to attend a series of Housing First ‘Bite Size Chats’ made up of a range of engaging conversations and the chance to ask your questions about 'Housing First' approaches and practices. Register here.
Nghia Luong – Senior Community Worker - Data Lead – Ruah
Nghia demonstrated what the dashboard for the By-Name list looks like. Through a demonstration he spotlighted some of the very early data which showed the monthly data of how many rough sleepers came into the system (inflow) if they returned to homeless (outflow) or were housed. This data will inform the improvement projects.
There was considerable interest in Mr Luong’s presentation despite the information being early days. Work is continuing to finalise the dashboard and a website will be launched soon to make the data accessible.
Dr Roanna Lobo – Curtin University
Dr Lobo outlined the challenges for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds who are vulnerable to or experiencing homelessness and social isolation.
Dr Lobo and a research team wish to work with service providers to inform approaches to increase access to secure housing and improve mental health outcomes for people from CaLD backgrounds and to identify gaps in prevention and service delivery.
If interested email home@curtin.edu.au or contact Kahlia on (08) 9266 7382.
Danielle Rossetti – City of Perth
Danielle provided an update on the accrediation process of homelessness services. The City continues to work with providers and goodwill groups working in the public realm to become accredited service providers at Moore Street.
New data is being captured with the City’s association with the Aboriginal-led RooForce which delivers outreach services and connects to people experiencing homelessness to appropriate services.
The Homeless Services in the Inner City brochure has been updated.
Liz Lennon – Shelter WA
Shelter WA, with input from a sector advisory group, is exploring the capacity building and development needs of the sector. To realise our vision of everybody having a place to call home, we need organisations and individuals to have a range of opportunities to access information and knowledge to build their skills, expertise and experience.
Liz will be working with the sector to scope and map the sector at both a workforce and organisational level. She will be writing a discussion paper highlighting the current state of sector capacity building activities and ideas presented from the interviews regarding future sector capacity development and opportunities for sector input and direction.
If you would like further information click here.