Latest news with #KateColvin
SBS Australia
6 days ago
- General
- SBS Australia
Rising rates of homelessness among First Nations families spurs calls for intervention
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . Without a home address, you can't open a bank account. Without a bank account, you can't get a job or even apply for government income support. Without any of those, you can't apply for, let alone rent, a property. While finding secure and affordable housing feels increasingly difficult for many Australians, getting out of homelessness is even harder. Housing organisations are sounding the alarm over the increasing number of First Nations families with children turning to homelessness services. "There's more people just deeply affected by the housing crisis. So rents just keep rising and rising and vacancy rates are really low. So it's really hard for people to find a home they can afford in the rental market. And homelessness services are overwhelmed by all the increasing number of people who need help." That was Kate Colvin, the CEO of Homelessness Australia. According to their latest report, done in conjunction with the The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association, the number of families with children accessing homelessness services rose by five per cent between the 2022-23 financial year and the 2023-24 financial year. Of that five per cent increase, 31 per cent were Indigenous, with homelessness services assisting over 24,000 Indigenous children over that period. Darren Smith is the CEO of Aboriginal Housing Victoria and the Chair of the Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Forum in Victoria. "I think the first thing to recognise is that there's a history of exclusion, which includes exclusion from housing for Aboriginal people that's gone on for generations in this country. Aboriginal people are 15 times more likely to experience homelessness in Victoria, which really relates to that legacy of colonisation, dispossession, and decades of policy failure." Without adequate resourcing, homelessness organisations are being forced to turn away families in need. Over the two years, data shows a 12 per cent increase in the number of First Nations families already homeless when they first asked for support, and those still homeless at the end of support rose by 8 per cent. Kate Colvin says children are particularly vulnerable in unstable housing. "We know that when children are homeless, often they have to move from place to place. There might only be temporary accommodation available for a very short time, and then they have to move somewhere else. Or oftentimes there's not temporary accommodation available at all and people end up couch surfing, sleeping cars, sometimes even on the street." The Yoorrook Justice Commission was Victoria's and Australia's first formal truth-telling inquiry led by First Peoples, into historic and ongoing systemic injustices perpetrated against First Peoples through colonisation. One focus area in the inquiry was child protection. In Victoria, First Nations children are 21.7 times more likely to be in out-of-home care. First Nations youth in Victoria are also incarcerated at a rate of 10.4 times the rate of non-Indigenous youth. Darren Smith says homelessness is just one consequence of these systemic injustices. "We know that there's a high proportion of Aboriginal children that are in out of home care and involved with a child protection system who are turning up into homelessness services to access housing support. And we should be able to actually do something that can resolve those issues for those young people. And it's part of preventing the next generation of child removals." For kids, not having a stable address often means being unable to attend school. Kate Colvin says that when housing instability starts in youth, it's more likely to persist into adulthood. "It's very difficult for children to stay connected to their education in that circumstance. Even if they're going to school, they might really struggle to fully participate in the classroom. So it has then often a long-term impact with adults who are homeless, particularly rough sleeping, often having had their first experience of homelessness as a child. So huge impacts. And we think that this is such a huge priority for government. We shouldn't have children homeless in Australia, and we really hope that this goes to the top of their priority list." Homelessness comes in different forms, with those sleeping rough making up just over 5 per cent of people experiencing homelessness in 2021. While First Nations people account for under 4 per cent of the total population, they account for 28 per cent of all homeless people in Australia. Darren Smith says generations of disadvantage mean many First Nations families don't have intergenerational wealth to fall back on. "Without safe, secure and affordable housing, people don't have the stability to support themselves. So we understand, and we know about intergenerational wealth as well. So, the fact that people don't have the security so that they can get the kind of opportunities in terms of employment, kids not going to school, all those things contribute in the longer term to the ability to create wealth over a lifetime and intergenerational wealth and without that passing of intergenerational wealth from parents to their children, they're behind the market, behind the ball in terms of being able to actually access the housing market themselves in the future." There are many reasons for homelessness, including poverty, lack of housing supply, domestic and family violence and relationship breakdowns. Kate Colvin says that when people access homelessness services before the point of crisis, they are far less likely to become homeless. "So what we know is that if someone comes to a homeless service and can get that early intervention support, so they come to a homelessness service, they're at risk of homelessness, in 80 per cent of circumstances, they don't become homeless. So the homeless service can help negotiate issues that may have arisen with the landlord, might be able to help assist with some arrears if that's the issue. Or sometimes if it's family breakdown, often we have young people who are experiencing homelessness because of conflict or difficulties at home. And a homelessness service might be able to assist that young person to return safely home if that's possible, or to stay safely perhaps with another family member." The problem, she says, is that with surging demand for these services, those not yet in crisis can't be prioritised. "But the problem is that when people come to a homelessness service, they've got so many people who just don't have accommodation that evening that they're triaging the support that's available. And so it does end up going to someone who is in that more immediate and desperate circumstance, but then down the track, the problem is, is that it's much harder to rehouse people than it is to stop the tenancy breakdown." With nationwide housing supply issues, even those with secure employment are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable, appropriate housing. Dr Erika Martino is a VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Health Policy at the University of Melbourne. She says that racism can also be a barrier to getting rentals. "Our work and also more broad evidence in the sector suggests that racism in the rental market is widespread, but it's often under-reported and also extremely hard to prove. And this can include being ignored by agents offered fewer inspections, asked to pay more rent or much more rent upfront to secure the properties. We heard that a lot, that people had to cough up to six months rent to secure a place. And these practices are essentially, I would say, facilitated by an unequal power dynamic within the rental system that preferences housing provider rights over tenant rights." Darren Smith says that some landlords and real estate agents make assumptions about potential renters and sometimes prioritise non-Indigenous applicants. "We certainly see that Aboriginal people don't have the same opportunities that everyone else has. So if there's a choice, Aboriginal people are at the bottom of it. We do hear stories, particularly for regional areas about families being knocked back for properties. Assumptions being made about who the renters are or potential renters are based on their surnames. And even we see discrimination from time to time where people are working for Aboriginal organisations that there's an assumption around Aboriginality where they don't get the same kind of opportunities to access private rental markets." Homelessness is not only an issue of housing, but of health. Dr Martino says if rising rates aren't dealt with, Australia's health system will also be impacted. "There is a large body of evidence both generated from within my research group and internationally that shows that homelessness and housing insecurity are strongly linked to poor, physical and also poor mental health outcomes. So for example, people experiencing homelessness face higher rates of chronic illness, injury, disability, and also premature mortality. And mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and trauma are both causes and consequences of housing instability. " If the rate of Indigenous people accessing homelessness services in Victoria were scaled up to the general population of Victoria, it would be around 1.2 million people. If 1.2 million Victorians were accessing homelessness services, it would likely be declared a national emergency. Kate Colvin says the longer this crisis goes unaddressed, the more investment will be needed down the line. "So the main issue with federal and state interventions in homelessness is that there's just simply not enough resourcing. So for example, when we have a health crisis like COVID , there was a huge surge in investment into hospitals because there was a recognition that more people would need that emergency intervention. But we have had a growing and growing and growing housing crisis in this country, and the governments just haven't responded by increasing investment in homelessness services. " While the Australian government has committed to building more homes, not all forms of housing are appropriate for everyone. Dr Martino says problems often arise when social housing models are treated as one size fits all. "There are in particular certain housing forms that are, or models that don't work particularly well. So for example, shared or high density settings, housing can often retraumatise women who have been experienced abuse or violence. And some of my research, having spoken to some women who've been through say, the crisis accommodation system because there's not enough crisis accommodation available, often women will end up in motels due to insufficient supply, and this is actually placed or places women at further risk. And this will sometimes mean that women end up returning to unsafe family homes. So they're essentially forced to choose between homelessness and violence." The Australian Government's Closing the Gap Target aims to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized housing to 88 per cent by 2031. While improvements have been made, the government is not on track to meet those targets. Darren Smith says that to provide culturally safe and appropriate housing for Aboriginal people, there needs to be more investment in the Aboriginal community controlled sector. "The first thing you need to do when you need to address homelessness is you need to be able to provide people with a home. And we have 7,000 Aboriginal people across Victoria at the moment that are seeking social housing, and we need to make sure that the Aboriginal community controlled sector is supported so that they can actually provide that housing." Kate Colvin says if the government wants to see serious improvements, it must put First Nations-led organisations in charge of leading the efforts. "Homelessness Australia is seeking to resolve that by really calling for a change in direction from the government. So we want to see a dedicated First Nations led housing and homelessness plan to really put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in charge of what the solutions are and delivering those resources. Because what we can see is that it hasn't worked when governments have just made decisions for First Nations communities and delivered resources in ways that haven't been successful."
West Australian
31-07-2025
- General
- West Australian
Alarming increase in Australia's ‘working poor' slipping into homelessness, Homelessness Australia data shows
The number of working families people in dire need of emergency help has substantially increased, with one homelessness services provider fearing that the 'rise of the working poor' is resulting in families with children 'not just struggling' but 'slipping into homelessness'. New data from Homelessness Australia found that between 2021-22 to 2023-24, there was a 5 per cent uptick in families with children turning to homelessness services for urgent help. Nominally, this reflected a 4654-person increase, with 92,476 people seeking help from services in that period, with the number of families already homeless at the time of seeking help increasing by 11 per cent. The number of clients with a waged income requiring support also grown from 10.5 per cent to 12.1 per cent over the two-year period. The nation peak body said the sharper rates of homelessness was exacerbated by the housing crisis, plus under-resourced services grappling with years of increased demand. Perth-based provider St Patrick's Community Support Centre chief Michael Piu said his organisation had reached 'unprecedented demand', with staff now seeing 'working families' facing homelessness for the first time. Describing the cohort as the 'working poor', he said supporting families facing homelessness was challenging, with the system set up to respond to single adults. 'Families now make up 25 per cent of our case-managed clients and up to 43 per cent of those seeking emergency relief. That's a sharp increase, and it's still likely under-reported,' he said. 'Right now, we know of at least 92 children sleeping in cars, tents, or other unsafe places, and many are still trying to get to school. 'One family with four kids, two with autism, and a mother battling cancer, was couch-surfing for seven months. Her surgery was delayed because they had nowhere to live.' He said the immense demand was resulting in services being unable to give support to those desperately requiring held. 'Our services are overwhelmed. We're doing our best, but we are barely touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of reaching everyone who needs help – let alone giving them the help they need,' he said 'We're seeing the fallout – increased domestic violence, impacts on the health and wellbeing of children, declining mental health. This isn't just a housing issue. It's a human one.' Ahead of Labor's push on productivity, Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said Australia's growing 'homelessness emergency' was both a social and economic problem. 'How can you hold down a job, contribute to the economy and keep your family safe and physically and mentally well when you don't have somewhere safe to come home to?' she said. 'When children move from couch to couch, or when families are sleeping in cars and tents, looking for the next safe place, parents miss work, and can slip into unemployment, children disengage from school, and the health costs associated with homelessness spiral.' The group has called on the government to create a National Housing and Homelessness Plan with clear targets and timelines to ensure accountability, boost social housing investment to ensure stock accounts for 10 per cent of homes, and increase funding to First Nations organisations. Ms Colvin said desire to fix the problem should be a 'no-brainer'. 'Being homeless costs a lot of money, and makes it harder for everyday Australians to contribute to their communities, but there are clear actions we can take to end homelessness, while also boosting the economy,' she said. Mr Piu said the sector needed a 'national co-ordinated response' and it needs it 'now'. 'We need to be focused on prevention, early intervention, and providing diverse housing options – to respond to the immediate crisis, and to ensure a strong future for our children and our nation.'
SBS Australia
22-07-2025
- Health
- SBS Australia
'They have nowhere to go': The Australians at the centre of a housing 'emergency'
This article contains references to domestic and family violence. Women and girls are at the centre of a homelessness crisis which has reached "emergency proportions" across Australia, the country's peak body has warned. The number of women and girls seeking homelessness services each month increased by 14 per cent between May 2022 — when the Albanese government was first elected — and March this year, according to analysis by Homelessness Australia. The number of women and girls seeking assistance who were already homeless increased by 20 per cent — from 24,517 in May 2022 to 29,449 in March this year. "What that reveals is more women and girls are not getting the support they need to avoid homelessness," Kate Colvin, CEO of Homelessness Australia, told SBS News. "They're not getting early intervention, and they're coming to homeless services already having exhausted perhaps their friends, their family networks. "They have nowhere to go. And then, the reality is homeless services don't have the resources they need to provide safe accommodation for women and girls in that situation." The number of women and girls seeking support who were at risk of homelessness was also up 8 per cent. Overall, it said around 45 per cent of these women and girls have experienced domestic and family violence, referencing AIHW data. 'Emergency proportions' Colvin said homelessness across the country has reached "emergency proportions". "We have hundreds of people every day pushed out of the housing market into homelessness, and then not able to get back into housing," she said. "The situation just keeps getting worse and worse." The peak body attributes women and families being pushed further into crisis to rising rents, domestic violence and a lack of early intervention. Meanwhile, overwhelmed services are being forced to make difficult decisions around who to help and who to turn away. Minister for Housing, Homelessness and Cities Clare O'Neil said Australia is "confronting a housing crisis which has been building for 40 years". "It's affecting the lives of millions of Australians, and the most urgent and disturbing part of it is the rising homelessness all of us can see in our own communities," she said. Our staff are 'forced to triage' Frances Crimmins is the CEO of YWCA Canberra, a specialist women and children's homeless service provider. "Normally, what we find is that if they haven't already presented with domestic and family violence as the cause of their homelessness [we later learn after building trust] it has often formed part of the reason they have become homeless," Crimmins said. YWCA Canberra leases 60 properties from the ACT government, and has 19 of its own — some of which have been provided by the federal government specifically for women and children escaping domestic and family violence. They are all full. "The current level of demand just keeps on increasing, and so our staff are forced to triage," Crimmins said. Triaging refers to making decisions about which clients to prioritise in offering support. Supporting women and children escaping violence may include safety planning and preparing a vacant property. If there is no accommodation, it may involve safety planning to return to living with a perpetrator until housing becomes available. For some victim-survivors, a lack of housing options may lead them to stay in, or return to, a violent relationship. Source: AAP / Diego Fedele Family and domestic violence is the main reason women and children leave their homes, according to the AIHW. Many of them experience housing insecurity, and in some cases, homelessness. For some victim-survivors, a lack of housing options may lead them to stay in, or return to, a violent relationship. "That's a really sad fact … it can often be known that [a woman] might know the perpetrator's behaviour, and that can often be less risky than the unknown, which is sleeping rough or in a car with your children," Crimmins said. When it comes to transitioning clients out into the community, Crimmins said a lack of social and affordable housing has left them "stuck". "It's nearly impossible for us, currently, to transition women with three or more children," she said. "We are stuck. We know we have other women we need to accommodate, but we can't exit those women and children back into homelessness. That's what the staff are managing every day." Crimmins called for a "big uptick" in social housing to provide more exit pathways. "We need it urgently," she said. Calls for more social housing, a national plan O'Neil said the government has a particular focus on crisis housing. "We're making a record investment of over $1.2 billion in crisis housing and last term, we delivered a 45 per cent boost to rent assistance which helped a million Australians struggling to pay their rent," she said. She said the most important action for the Commonwealth is building more social and affordable homes. "We're delivering 55,000 new desperately needed social and affordable homes — 28,000 are under construction or planning right now. Every one of these homes will change the life of an Australian family." Colvin said the government's commitments are "certainly very welcome" after over a decade of underinvestment in social and affording housing. "The thing is they're not sufficient to catch up to where we need to be," she said. The latest annual report from the government's National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, released in May, said a "significant uplift" was needed to support Australians who depend on social and affordable housing. In 2021, this proportion of households was around 4 per cent. The report recommended governments and the private and not-for-profit sectors commit to restore the proportion of the housing stock over the medium term to 6 per cent. A long-term target should be as high as 10 per cent, it said. Homelessness Australia is also calling for an increase in social housing to 10 per cent of all dwellings — one of three "critical actions" included in its plan to address rising homelessness that was launched on Tuesday. The peak body is also calling for a national housing and homelessness plan to set reduction targets and guide major reforms, along with new investment in services in partnership with states and territories. The government is developing a housing and homelessness plan as part of its housing strategy, with consultation taking place in its first term. It's understood this work remains a priority. If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit In an emergency, call 000.
ABC News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Homelessness under Albanese government 'worst in living memory', peak bodies warn
Homelessness rates, particularly for women and girls, have worsened under the Albanese government's first term due to service underfunding and a lack of affordable housing, according to the industry peak body. The issue has reached its "worst levels in living memory", Homelessness Australia said, with analysis of data from homelessness services across the country showing women and girls fleeing domestic violence are the most affected. The number of people accessing homelessness services each month has increased by 10 per cent since Labor was elected in May 2022, but for women and girls, the increase has been by 14 per cent, the data shows. Despite the government's attempted focus on the housing crisis in its first term, Homelessness Australia's chief executive Kate Colvin said commitments made to social housing have not hit the mark and are condemning vulnerable families to homelessness. "Even with those commitments, the proportion of social housing is still going to continue to fall," she said. "We need government to do a lot more. "This is a huge problem." It comes as a new report from housing lobby group Everybody's Home has found social housing has declined to around 4 per cent of all homes, down from 4.7 per cent in 2013, with the group's chief executive, Maiy Azize, calling on the Albanese government to deliver more affordable rentals. "The government mustn't take for granted the Australians who voted them in with the hope of making housing more affordable," she said. Homelessness Australia's analysis of Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing data shows an additional 72,000 people were turned away from services in 2023-24 — and three in four were women or children. Ms Colvin said the shortage of reasonably priced rentals meant not only were people being forced into homelessness, but women ready to move out of a domestic violence or homelessness refuge had nowhere to go. Last week, the ABC revealed the Treasury department advised Labor soon after it was re-elected that its signature pledge to build 1.2 million homes over five years to address the housing crisis "will not be met". Housing and Homelessness Minister Clare O'Neil told the ABC the government has invested more than $1.2 billion in crisis and transitional housing. "We're acutely aware of just how complex the challenge of homelessness is, which is why we continue to listen to people with first-hand knowledge right across the homelessness sector," she said. "In this new term the government has appointed a special envoy for social housing and homelessness, Josh Burns, to work with the sector on a variety of complex problems affecting different communities." Ms Colvin said while she appreciated the government had committed funding towards building more homes, in the meantime, homelessness services were turning away more and more people. "The homeless services haven't had increased funding because the housing crisis has gotten worse," she said. "They just have more people coming." In the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern, the 200 beds at the Women's and Girls' Emergency Centre are full every night. Its chief executive, Nicole Yade, said her staff have the "horrendous" task of choosing between desperate families whenever a bed at the refuge becomes free. "It's an impossible choice," she said. She said frontline workers she had spoken to found it easier to transition clients into an affordable rental five years ago than they do now. The lack of social and affordable housing meant women and their children are often taking up beds for months longer than necessary, because they cannot afford anything in the community, Ms Yade said. "They get stuck in the refuge," she said. "It doesn't feel like there's been enough change for us on the ground when we're delivering services to women who are escaping family and domestic violence." Ms Colvin said the government's commitments to housing for this term of parliament are still "not where we'd like them to be." She is calling on the government to complete a national plan to end homelessness, invest more in homelessness services and grow social housing to 10 per cent of all dwellings. The government began consultation on a national housing and homelessness plan in 2023, to determine a policy vision for the sector. The ABC understands that work is ongoing.
News.com.au
15-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
More than one million Aussie homes at risk from fires, floods as housing crisis deepens
More than 1000 homes have been left uninhabitable by devastating floods on the NSW Mid-North Coast, a report has found, amid fears the climate crisis could put millions more at risk. The report by the Housing, Homelessness, and Disasters National Symposium last week found 1153 homes were left uninhabitable by the floods. Another 1831 homes were damaged. Some 23,000 Australians are displaced by floods, bushfires, and cyclones each year, with the report finding 5.6 million homes are at risk from bushfires as climate impacts accelerate. Homeless Australia CEO Kate Colvin said as climate disasters become more regular, there was a risk of a 'two-tiered society' in which housing security determined disaster survival. 'There is a gap between people who are best able to protect themselves and people who are least able to,' she said. Ms Colvin said renters were often limited to cheaper properties in more flood-prone areas and were less resilient to climate-related disasters, compared with higher-income earners. Renters also often had less access to government support and faced a 'superheated' rental market. 'They can't compete because all those people who had insurance often also get a special payments system to afford rent during the time when their home is not available,' Ms Colvin said. 'They then can't get a rental because you've got this superheated market, so you have another wave of homelessness just because of the housing market impact'. Ms Colvin called on the federal government to make renters or people facing homelessness a priority in future disaster responses, and include disaster resilience in its 10-year housing plan. 'In the planning phase, include the homelessness sector, include strategies around housing resilience … (and) in the response phase, be inclusive of people who are facing homelessness.' The symposium brought together more than 100 professionals across the housing, emergency management, and governmental sectors to examine how 'secondary crises' affect NSW. Factors included the prevalence of construction workers who flood disaster zones in the wake of climate events, inadvertently driving up rents for already struggling locals. The symposium found that in Australia, some 953,000 homes were vulnerable to flooding and 17,500 were at threat from coastal erosion, with 169,000 people on the public housing list. HowWeSurvive UNSW Sydney academic and co-author of the symposium report, Dr Timothy Heffernan, said climate disasters were already hitting 'housing-vulnerable' communities. 'When you have 6.5 million homes at risk from bushfires, floods or coastal erosion, and a housing system that can't meet demand, every disaster becomes a humanitarian crisis,' he said. 'Hotels and motels fill up immediately, caravan parks are often in flood-prone areas … We're asking an already strained system to absorb sudden surges of thousands of displaced people.' Social Futures general manager Martelle Geurts said the Northern Rivers housing system was 'already fragile' when it was hit by the 2022 flood disaster, damaging more than 10,000 homes. Despite extensive recovery efforts, the Northern Rivers accounted for about a third of rough sleepers in NSW in 2025. The most recent NSW Street Count - an annual audit of people facing homelessness - found 346 people sleeping rough in the City of Sydney. In the Northern Rivers, there were 654 people. 'Climate events are becoming more frequent and severe, and they destroy homes. So, climate change and homelessness are inextricably linked,' Ms Geurts said. 'People can't recover without stable housing. 'Disasters displace people and can cause lasting trauma. Some people experience PTSD, and the impact of that can be lifelong. 'What we know is that people can't recover psychologically unless they have a secure place to live.'
