$1.5 million for research into homelessness
The Australian Government will provide $1.5 million for 16 research projects into homelessness and its long term impact.
The announcement was made at the Street to Home Service in Adelaide, ahead of the fifth meeting of the Prime Minister’s Council on Homelessness.
The SA Government’s Street to Home initiative is a leading model which helps people who are homeless in the city of Adelaide transition into stable housing.
They are provided with support in accessing health, housing, community services, mental health services, and drug and alcohol services, until they are in stable, long-term accommodation.
The role of the Council is to provide an independent overview of implementation towards the White Paper goals for 2020, and provide advice to the Government on progress, risks and emerging issues critical to the early years of the implementation.
Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek, announced the research funding would enable 13 organisations to undertake research that will strengthen understanding of homelessness so services are appropriately targeted.
Ms Plibersek said the funding was part of the Government’s $11.4 million National Homelessness Research Agenda.
“It is critical that we build the evidence to guide our efforts and measure our success,” Ms Plibersek said.
“These 16 projects will strengthen our understanding of the factors that lead to homelessness, provide evidence to improve services and inform future policy and program design.
“The topics will be broad-ranging, covering areas such as families and children, unemployment, and Indigenous homelessness.
“This research will inform the implementation of the homelessness reform agenda across Australia as we work towards the goals to halve the rate of homelessness and offer supported accommodation to all rough sleepers who seek it by 2020.”
The Rudd Government is spending $4.9 billion over four years to address homelessness, with an additional $400 million from the States and Territories.
Four research projects will be funded in South Australia, to be conducted by Griffith University, the University of South Australia’s Australian Centre for Child Protection and Centre for Rural Health and Community Development, and Flinders University’s Flinders Partners.
The projects will examine homelessness among people with disability, children, and Indigenous Australians, as well as chronic homelessness, respectively. The research projects will begin in June 2010.
| Organisation | Project Title |
|---|---|
| Australian Catholic University – Institute of Child Protection Studies | Responding to homelessness: the needs of sole-fathers and their children who experience homelessness. |
| Australian Catholic University – School of Business | Homelessness and unemployment: understanding the connection and breaking the cycle |
| Australian Institute of Family Studies | The influence of unstable housing on children’s wellbeing and development from birth to 9 years of age: evidence from a national longitudinal study |
| Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education | Indigenous women and the role of transactional sex in homelessness |
| Eastern Access Community Health Inc. | Understanding homelessness service transitions between community and clinical sectors (homelessness service transitions) |
| Flinders Partners Pty Ltd | Addressing homelessness amongst persons with a disability: identifying and enacting best practice |
| Griffith University | Precarious social inclusion: chronic homelessness and impaired decision-making capacity |
| HomeGround Services | What makes a difference? Building a foundation for nationally consistent homelessness client outcome measures. |
| Melbourne General Practice Network | Exploring the clinical care needs of homeless people within Melbourne’s CBD and inner suburbs |
| Micah Projects Inc. | A comparative study of the effectiveness of family support and crisis intervention with homeless families |
| Northern Rivers Social Development Council Incorporated | What to do when city based homelessness models don’t work in the bush? |
| Queensland University of Technology | Understanding homelessness service integration: place based network analysis |
| University of NSW – Social Policy Research Centre | Integrating employment and housing support for homeless people: a study of the Mission Australia Centre (MAC) model |
| University of New South Wales – School of Social Science and International Studies | Lifecourse institutional costs of homelessness for vulnerable groups |
| University of South Australia – The Australian Centre for Child Protection | Responding to children in specialist homelessness services? |
| University of South Australia – Centre for Rural Health and Community Development | Homeless away from home: Understanding homelessness patterns arising from seasonal mobility of Aboriginal people to regional service centres (South Australia pilot study) |