THE Baillieu government is refusing to sign up to a federal target to halve homelessness by 2020, and is instead preparing its own multimillion-dollar strategy to cut the number of Victorians ''sleeping rough''.

With the latest census figures suggesting more than 20,500 people are at present homeless in Victoria, the government is preparing to overhaul the way agencies assisting the homeless are funded.

It is expected to allocate at least $34 million in next month's budget to an initiative focused on providing housing to young homeless people who are committed to finding a job.


Housing Minister Wendy Lovell said the government did not accept the Commonwealth's goal to halve homelessness by 2020, because it was an ''aspirational goal'' that would be too hard to measure given there is no nationally consistent and accepted definition of homelessness.

''We're committed to reducing homelessness, but I'm not about to set a target given the difficulty in counting people [who are homeless] and given the difficulty in actually measuring whether you've halved it or not,'' Ms Lovell said.



Her comments come as Prime Minister Julia Gillard's key adviser on homelessness warned that Victoria is at risk of falling behind other states unless it does more to address the number of people without a secure home.  

Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Tony Nicholson, who chairs the Prime Minister's Council on Homelessness, said Victoria had ''led the nation'' in responding to homelessness for the past few decades, but was now at risk of falling behind other states such as South Australia and Western Australia. He said if Victoria wanted to reduce homelessness, the government's strategy should focus on providing more cheap housing and giving young people at risk of homelessness greater chances of getting jobs. But he said the government should also sign on to the national goals, because ''as with any endeavour, unless you set a target and measure progress, things don't happen''.  

Sacred Heart Mission chief executive Michael Perusco agreed. ''Having a target focuses everyone's efforts on meeting a common goal … so it would be disappointing if the government didn't sign up to it,'' he said.

The government can't say how soon its homeless strategy will be in place, but it is expected to overhaul the system so that funding is linked to performance.

At present, agencies tend to be funded on throughput rather than the quality of their service and the outcomes they achieve to ensure the cycle of homelessness doesn't continue. Hanover chief executive Tony Keenan said it was important this changed because ''at the moment, the system is designed to reward failure''.  

Ms Lovell said the government would look at ''outcomes based'' arrangements for homeless services. The $42 million Labor previously committed as part of its homeless strategy last year would be retained, she said, and a further $34 million is likely to be allocated as part of the May 3 budget for three 40-bed centres that tie accommodation for young homeless with a mutual contract to get a job.

Quote: - ""It is expected to allocate at least $34 million in next month's budget to an initiative focused on providing housing to young homeless people who are committed to finding a job.""


Their age, and whether they are 'committed' to finding a job
is irrelevant.

Efforts should be made to assist ALL homeless.

NO exceptions. And NO excuses.

when Villawood detention centre is rebuilt the fences could be taken down and homeless housed there....and all the illegals then transported by cattle truck and dumped in the simpson desert

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Apr 24^th, 2011 at 10:15am:




why are you convinced the opposition would be worse.... NO ONE could be worse than this lot at anything... Mr Bean could do a better job lets face it!

It's a state issue... let the states deal with it.

It seems like there are a few different ways to tackle the problem of homelessness. I can't see that dumping the problem onto the states would be of any benefit. The individual states and territories are just as incompetent as the federal government. That would just be a different government to blame for the homelessness.

No, Clive Palmer or any other of the mining magnates are not about to part with their hard earned cash  they're too busy buying failed football clubs for purposes of prestige 

The homeless are going to have to wait until after the great depression when the country will put all efforts into rebuilding and restructuring new schools, hospitals and housing, roads etc........a big new Australia just like after the war, then leave it to crumble again like last time lol

housing being the most expensive in the world in Australia now- its  only affordable to people with incomes  of $150.000 p.a.and above

Kat wrote on Apr 25^th, 2011 at 5:57pm:



If they're on benefits they'll halve it because they don't pay for accommodation, so they don't need as much lol