Adelaide Zero Project

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:01): My question is directed to the Minister for Human Services and is about the Adelaide Zero Project. As no-one deserves to sleep rough, can the minister please update the chamber about the work of the Adelaide Zero Project?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her interest in this area. The Adelaide Zero Project is one that is quite familiar to a number of members in this chamber. It has multipartisan support and has the aim of making Adelaide functional zero for rough sleeping, I think by the year 2020. The government is addressing the issue of people sleeping rough in the CBD, surrounding Parklands and North Adelaide and thanks Adelaide Zero for its leadership in this area.

We have been named a vanguard city by the Institute of Global Homelessness. Dame Louise Casey, who has been to Adelaide and met with a number of members last year, will be back in Adelaide on 18 September to see what progress we have made here and provide further advice. The South Australian Housing Authority is a partner of the Adelaide Zero Project. We thank the Don Dunstan Foundation for having initiated the Zero Project and for their leadership role.

The Zero Project uses approaches that have been successful overseas. Functional zero is a definition where the number of people sleeping rough is no greater than the average monthly housing placement rate. It became operational with Connections Week, which was led by the Hutt St Centre, Connections Week being from 14 to 16 May.

The Housing Authority funds a range of specialist homelessness services to provide case management and support for people who are sleeping rough in the inner city. These are funded through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. The Housing Authority under the previous government, I note, provided a range of supports to Don Dunstan through the Zero Project. We are currently providing 0.4 FTEs to the project to assist them in their work.

There were 143 people who were identified through Connections Week as sleeping rough in Adelaide's inner city in May 2018. People are identified by a by-name list, which is kept up to date and should be made available through a live process, if it hasn't been already. The Housing Authority has set a target to provide 10 properties a month for allocation to this, and community housing providers have also been participating by providing properties to people who are amongst our most vulnerable.

Recently, the Adelaide city council, through the Lord Mayor, hosted a business alliance, which was initiated by him. He generously hosted an event at the town hall to include a number of Adelaide's leading business-people to advise them of the project and to seek their support and to participate in particular ways, and so a number of these activities are ongoing. It is a good collaboration between a range of different sectors in Adelaide and South Australia and we look forward to providing some firm results in the near future.