Lack of affordable housing blocks efforts to reduce rough sleeping

A partnership between public and not-for-profit agencies has adopted a proven strategy to permanently end homelessness for people sleeping rough in Brisbane.

However an increase in the supply of social housing in the city is needed to ensure the strategy reaches its full potential, according to University of Queensland researchers.

Dr Andrew Clarke from UQ’s School of Social Science said local not-for-profit Micah Projects worked with police and other public agencies to deploy a ‘housing-first’ approach to rough sleeping in Brisbane.

“The approach aimed to provide unconditional access to stable, long-term housing for people sleeping rough, coupled with tailored support to address their ongoing welfare needs,” he said.

“Agencies like police routinely encounter people sleeping rough when patrolling public spaces.

“The Micah Projects partnership – organised through the Street to Home program – transforms these encounters into an opportunity to refer people for housing support.

“The organisation then assists them to access stable housing in the social housing sector.”

A study by Dr Clarke and UQ researcher Associate Professor Cameron Parsell found that people housed through the initiative experienced positive life changes.

“This is consistent with international research on the effectiveness of a ‘housing-first’ strategy,” Dr Clarke said.

“However, we also found the undersupply and long wait-times for social housing meant that many people remained on the street for extended periods, despite receiving support.

“Due to decades of underinvestment in social housing, as of July 2019 even people with priority status had spent around seven months on the social housing waitlist.”

Dr Clarke said the research findings contributed to understanding what would be needed to end rough sleeping in Brisbane.

“A coordinated and housing-focused response has the capacity to end homelessness for some of the most vulnerable people who are sleeping rough on the street,” he said.

However, the researchers believe no matter how dedicated or well organised the efforts and interventions of local agencies, they cannot adequately respond to rough sleeping while the supply of social and affordable housing remains insufficient.

Since the research was undertaken, the COVID-19 crisis had brought a renewed focus to the problem of rough sleeping.

“The pandemic revealed just how vulnerable people sleeping rough are, but it also revealed that we can do something about it, as we saw people sleeping rough moved into hotels and student accommodation to help them social distance,” he said.

“Now is therefore the perfect time for society to take the steps required to permanently end rough sleeping in Australia by investing in affordable housing on a large scale.”

The research was funded by UQ through its Early Career Researcher Grant Scheme. It was made possible by the in-kind support of a range of agencies involved in homelessness responses in Brisbane, including Micah Projects and the Queensland Police Service.

Media: Dr Andrew Clarke, a.clarke4@uq.edu.au, ph +61 (0) 410 621 656; UQ Communication, Kristen Johnston, k.johnston@uq.edu.au, ph +61 (0) 407 656 518.