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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-04 Daily Xml
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Catherine House

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:57): My question is directed to the Minister for Human Services about Catherine House. Can the minister please update the chamber about how the government is supporting Catherine House to provide crisis accommodation and support to women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for her most important question and for her interest in this particular area. Catherine House was established in 1988 in partnership with the Sisters of Mercy, the South Australian Housing Trust and the Adelaide city council. The service provides crisis accommodation and support to women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and the supports are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The service also provides case management support for women to access housing and includes connecting women to education, training and employment services. The service also provides comprehensive and individualised support to people who have high levels of support needs. They are allocated a supportive housing package. Support to gain and maintain long-term sustainable housing is provided to people accessing emergency accommodation or residing in transitional accommodation properties. Housing outcomes include private rental, public and community housing properties.

Catherine House receives ongoing support from the state government via the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. In the previous financial year, data shows that Catherine House provided services to 105 women, 12 per cent of whom were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. The most common presenting issues during this period were housing crisis at 32 per cent and domestic or family violence at 24 per cent.

Half of the clients were homeless at intake, which reduced to 10 per cent at exit. Crisis accommodation was provided 138 times to 78 clients, with an average stay of 27 nights, and additional support was provided to 42 clients. The centre provides an on-site 20 crisis bed facility, to which four were recently added, eight separate transitional housing properties and five supported housing properties.

On 24 August, a gala dinner to celebrate 30 years of Catherine House was held at the Adelaide Town Hall. The Governor, the Hon. Hieu Van Le and his wife Lan Le were special guests. The event was also attended by the Minister for Child Protection. There were a great number of people who have taken an interest in this area over a significant period of time, and I was pleased to see the former member for Adelaide, the Hon. Jane Lomax-Smith, and the Hon. Lea Stevens in attendance as well.

The event was MC'd by Laine Anderson, who has been a strong supporter over many years of Catherine House, along with a range of other people with whom many of us would be familiar, including Linda Matthews, who has been a former executive officer of that service. The night raised I think close to $100,000 to support women. It was a fantastic event and a great celebration. We were also provided with a video of the service over the last 30 years and we were entertained by students from St Aloysius College and the choir of Catherine House as well, so a fantastic night to celebrate its achievements and we wish them all the best for the future.

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