Homelessness

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:48): I also have a question for the Minister for Human Services. Can the minister advise my community what can be done to assist people sleeping rough on Crown land in the Wallaroo Mines. With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: As the homelessness crisis worsens there are, unfortunately, people who have had to seek refuge on Crown land in the Wallaroo Mines. They are potentially suffering from addiction as well, and this has had an adverse impact on the community surrounding it, people like Carol Traeger, particularly recently as they have started lighting fires to help them cook, etc. These fires have also absorbed CFS resources who have been called to put them out, and so forth. What can be done to assist people sleeping rough?

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (14:48): I thank the local member very much for the question. We have done a significant piece of work with you, as well as the local member in regions where we have held country cabinets. This question is really important. Over a long time many people have associated sleeping rough and homelessness just with the suburbs and the inner city. In recent years, we have seen housing stress and homelessness also in regional areas that were once very affordable places to live, as I have just been speaking about.

A key part of addressing homelessness is providing public and community housing, which provides an affordable, safe and stable place to stay. We have very low vacancy rates in the regions and the officers provide a great service for people who do need that type of accommodation, who cannot compete in the open market and who often face a range of social, health and disability challenges.

With the investments I mentioned in the previous response—the $177.5 million initially in the election commitment and then increasing that to $232.7 million, and the Social Housing Accelerator money from the feds—we do have money to invest, and we made sure that that wasn't just for metropolitan Adelaide. We did make a commitment to build 150 regional homes as well, and I believe we will exceed that number.

Many regional homes have already been completed or tendered in the Upper Spencer Gulf region and the South-East, but within the recent tender which I have just been describing, there are actually 10 homes up for tender in the Yorke Peninsula region. The expectation is that that will provide for about $3 million of investment in that area, with three in Moonta, four in Kadina and three in Wallaroo. A quick check that I have done on the asset system indicates that it took more than 10 years, we believe, to build that many previously, so to deliver that for the people of Narungga in a couple of years is really pleasing.

That tender, I believe, as I said, closed yesterday and I hope that there are many local builders in the region of Narungga, in the member's area, who are putting their hands up to participate in that building program. We expect construction will begin very soon on those successful tenders and the works should be completed in this coming financial year.

In relation to the specific rough sleepers, of course, those houses will take time to come online. Not being well versed with the actual people, obviously, and their stories, I can provide a general response and thank the member for reaching out in regard to this. As I said to the member about this issue only this morning, we have already secured a commitment from the Country North Homelessness Alliance to pay a personal visit with their outreach workers. They will work across a number of agencies to provide that service. We will provide feedback through the member's office as soon as that comes to light, and I will personally reach out as well to provide updates at whatever time they may come through—as long as it's not overnight. I am very happy to liaise with the member in regard to that.

Rough sleeping is a terrible thing. It is challenging. People can get themselves into spots of bother and danger, as the member has mentioned, around fires and safety, so the team will make sure that they reach out to emergency services to ensure that they understand what's going on also.