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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-08 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus, Hotel Accommodation

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (16:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Human Services a question regarding the emergency COVID-19 hotel accommodation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS: On Friday 12 June, the minister appeared on ABC 891 with David Bevan and said:

…hotel options are available for people at the moment, unless they have misbehaved and come up against the anti-social behaviour policy, which applies to everybody across the system.

My question to the minister is:

1. What is meant by 'misbehave'?

2. Is this the government's excuse for not providing appropriate support to people with mental illness, cognitive impairments or acquired brain injury who need extra help?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (17:00): I thank the honourable member for her question. In response to her last set of questions, the answer certainly is no. We are well aware that there are people who do need extra support. In fact, I was just at the Hutt St Centre this afternoon where we were celebrating that there are some 250 people who have come through the hotel support system during the height of the COVID restrictions who have been placed into more permanent accommodation, some of it through the South Australian Housing Authority, some through community housing providers, some in the private rental market and some who have returned home to their previous situation.

It has been a very big team effort, not just on behalf of government but on behalf of a range of community service providers that operate homelessness services, who have been working very hard to ensure that we can place people. Indeed, one of the remarks that Chris Burns, from the Hutt St Centre, made specifically about what the hotel accommodation had enabled service providers to do was, because people effectively had a fixed address, the support services were able to provide case management and other support services to assist them with their particular challenges.

As a result, we do have this large number of people who are enjoying successful placement into more permanent accommodation. It has been an enormously successful program in terms of providing a safe place during the height of restrictions. I have said many, many times that, for people sleeping rough, that is not a safe situation for them. We always have the aim of not having people sleeping rough. We are aware that a number of people came into Adelaide from a number of suburban areas as well because they became aware of the program, and some of those people have now been placed into more permanent accommodation.

It has demonstrated that in these times of crisis we are able to move the dial very quickly. In terms of the support services that people have received, I think it has been a great demonstration. The Aspire Program demonstrates similar outcomes that, when people are provided with a roof over their head and the support services that they need, they are often able to engage on that recovery journey and transition back to living their lives as full citizens.

The PRESIDENT: A supplementary question, the Hon. Ms Pnevmatikos.

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