Homelessness

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (14:43): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question without notice to the Minister for Human Services on the topic of regional homelessness.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: I refer to reports yesterday that a homeless support service in Port Lincoln is being forced to ask locals to donate tents, sleeping bags and old swags following an increase in people seeking support in the region and a chronic shortage of housing. This comes following reports in March that rental shortages in both regional SA and Adelaide have made short-term accommodation hard to find, with regional towns often not having enough homes to accommodate prospective workers who are looking to move.

My question to the minister is: will the government commit to building crisis shelters for people experiencing homelessness in the regions to ensure that services are not required to beg for tents and sleeping bags?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for his question. Clearly, in South Australia we are in the midst of a lot of movement of people—in some instances people coming back to South Australia or people relocating from interstate—and that is having an impact, a flowthrough to a range of parts of the housing system. That has an impact on people who may otherwise have access to private rental markets, including in regional areas.

I do note in particular in relation to Port Lincoln that quite recently there was some commentary—under other circumstances—in terms of people who are homeless are able to access other supports through informal processes. Port Lincoln is a bit like other areas which are quite popular in terms of holidays as well, such as places like Victor Harbor, where there can often be shortages of housing because they are very popular places and it's hard for people to get there.

We also see in regional areas—for instance in Port Pirie when there has been a lot of contractors—that it is hard for the emergency services personnel to access hotel accommodation. So there are seasonal changes at times. Overlaying that we have this particular issue in South Australia of lots of people returning home.

Obviously, those sorts of calls and those forms of accommodation we would see as a last resort. The homelessness services do operate throughout South Australia. In terms of the—I think you asked about crisis. In terms of modernising our approach to homelessness, shelters and congregate living aren't necessarily the most modern approach to these questions and into the future we are looking more at people going into, if you like, mainstream forms rather than being in shelters.

There can be particular problems with having people in a congregate setting. If somebody is being disruptive, that impacts on everybody else, and the only place they have to go to is their own room. We have seen that from time to time in those forms of accommodation. In terms of particularly youth homelessness we announced quite recently Kids Under Cover, which is specifically for young people who may otherwise experience homelessness, as one of a suite of measures.

It's probably not the direction we would look at going forward. We are much more interested in what we call the rapid rehousing model so that people can find a property to live in, with supports if they need them. I am aware that there are other parts of the West Coast where there may actually be some housing vacancies, if people were interested in relocating into those. But our emergency services are very much at the frontline of this, and we always take their advice.