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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-10-30 Daily Xml
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Homelessness

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Housing. What actions, if any, is the minister taking to address SA Housing Trust criteria around couch surfing? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: It was reported as part of The Advertiser's Be Their Champion campaign that the SA Housing Trust required a father who was couch surfing with his disabled son to show that the pair were at risk of imminent homelessness in order to access public housing.

The Hon. N.D. CHAMPION (Taylor—Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Housing Infrastructure, Minister for Planning) (14:46): I take the member's point and, as we understand it, couch surfing is a form of homelessness and no-one is trying to hide from that, it is insecure housing and everybody understands that. There may have been some miscommunication in this case to an individual, or a misunderstanding in this case to an individual and, obviously, we don't want that. We want to be clear that people who are couch surfing can be registered for category 1 in the Housing Trust categories.

I understand, as I said before, that I think The Advertiser is acting in the public interest, giving individuals the right to be heard, and we need people who are suffering homelessness to be seen, but I think it's also important that we very carefully go through the facts in these cases. The facts are if you are couch surfing you are categorised as homeless, and you can access all the services of both Human Services and the Housing Trust.

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