Homelessness

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding homelessness. After previously telling this place that an increase in homelessness numbers was the result of better counting and not actually more homelessness, will the minister update the council on the latest Adelaide Zero data, which was approved yesterday? Secondly, after telling this place that the minister knew the answer to a question but the opposition would have to wait for that answer, how does the minister respond to claims that the latest numbers include the highest number ever of Aboriginal homeless people?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:18): I thank the honourable member for his question. I think I just need to correct part of the start of his question, which is I was referring to the category 1 waiting list. Those numbers have certainly come down during our time in office. In relation to the overall numbers of homelessness, I also need to send a memo to the Labor Party that, overall, homelessness has not increased in South Australia.

Any of the data that you choose to use overall shows that the trend is in fact going down, whether that is using the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data or our own internal data, which is collected from the frontline homelessness service providers and which is obviously the number of clients that they have.

I haven't seen the latest AZP numbers, which specifically refer to people who are homeless in and around the CBD. Those numbers do go up and down from time to time. They certainly went up last year, but they came down again—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: You said they don't go up. You said they never go up.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —because we managed to very successfully provide people—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: You said they only go down.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson has the opportunity to ask a supplementary. He will remain silent.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —with emergency accommodation. We were able to house a record number of those people who would otherwise have been rough sleeping or couch surfing and the like, mostly into South Australian Housing Authority properties.

In terms of some of the data from the Zero Project, we actually did a release quite recently, which I'm not sure whether the honourable member has availed himself of. Because the transition from the old homelessness contracts took place on 1 July, there were a number of clients who hadn't actually been recorded in the system, which accounted for one of the jumps—an apparent jump which wasn't an actual jump because they hadn't been recorded in the system—but it is—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —quite a dynamic situation where what we do with the Adelaide Zero clients is they are given a particular priority. It's the VI-SPDAT.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: It's a broken record, Michelle. You're saying the same answer again.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Mr President, it's a bit offensive I think to the frontline services who are working diligently around the clock to provide services to people who are experiencing homelessness and are diligently assisting them to exit, that one of these Labor members can sit on the red benches in the Legislative Council and just mock the entire process as if it's some exercise in—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: Don't pivot to the services.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —whether the graph goes up or down.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: You're responsible.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hanson is out of order.

An honourable member interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: And at the same time—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: Don't blame me for your performance. You need to be better.

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hanson! The minister, I am sure, is coming towards the conclusion of her answer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I am sorry, Mr President, I could take the rest of question time if you would indulge me. In terms of the population, we are working through providing people with accommodation. It is a housing-first model, which is something that the sector had come to us and spoken very clearly about, that the way that we seek to assist people who are experiencing homelessness is to do that intake assessment, determine what supports they need, rapidly exit them from the system and, if required, provide wraparound support.

We've got a service which has just opened up recently in the western suburbs called Holbrooks, which has had capital upgrades to provide additional security for some of those clients. Some of those clients are quite vulnerable. I think we have done an announcement in terms of the partners who are providing assistance to people who we have accommodated through that service. Some of those are some of the most complex clients, some of the ones who struggled during the first COVID round because they were still experiencing drug and alcohol problems. This is providing them with that onsite support to help them to stabilise.

In relation to Aboriginal people who are experiencing homelessness—or rough sleeping, I should say, because some people aren't homeless, they have just dislocated from their community or are in Adelaide for particular reasons—we do have the cross-government committee, which is working to support those people.

Some of the Aboriginal people in that situation have some fairly complex needs, and indeed I note that in previous sitting weeks the Labor Party have focused entirely on some fairly ridiculous allegations about people who have been trying to assist that particular cohort. The government has a cross-agency group that is working to try to provide support so that people are kept safe.