Homelessness

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:10): My question is also to the Minister for Human Services. It is regarding housing. Can the minister please provide an update of how a new intensive rough sleeper response program will help more South Australians into housing?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:10): I thank the honourable member for his question. Indeed, we are undertaking a very innovative service through our homelessness service, which is a partnership between Uniting Communities, mental health services from SA Health and the South Australian Housing Authority. It is the sort of service that I think a lot of people in the homelessness sector, particularly in the non-government sector, have called for for a long time that needs to be implemented, particularly for people who are some of the rough sleepers who are more difficult to engage in terms of help-seeking and the like.

We will be opening a new service at Holbrooks in the western suburbs at Brooklyn Park, where we will be providing not just accommodation to clients but those wraparound services that people often need to be able to successfully maintain their tenancy. What we do know and what we saw through part of the COVID pandemic was that when we were able to house a number of people into hotels and motels, there was a group of people who were more complex, who did return to rough sleeping, so this is the particular cohort that we are targeting with this new service.

We welcome the support of Wellbeing, Drug and Alcohol Services and the support of the Chief Psychiatrist in assisting us with the model going forward. Those wraparound services will be provided to between 45 and 60 people to assist them to address some of their issues. Uniting Communities will be providing things such as case management, assistance with living skills and tenancy support to help people to maintain their tenancy.

There has been an upgrade of those premises so that there is only key access, extra security and an onsite caretaker to ensure that there is some level of supervision for some of these people. We look forward to being able to demonstrate with some of our more complex clients how we can get them off the street for good.