St Mary's

Good morning/evening, my name is Helen Styles and I work at Micah Projects, the social justice organisation that the St Mary’s Community started to respond to those experiencing poverty and disadvantage in our community. One of the key program areas at Micah Projects is homelessness. We provide homelessness services ranging from crisis response to assist people to find housing through to supporting the people when housed to maintain their housing.

Homelessness in Brisbane is exploding. An incredibly tight rental market means that most rental housing in Brisbane is unaffordable for people who survive on low incomes and Centrelink benefits. More people are becoming homeless than perhaps ever before. The number of people sleeping rough in public spaces in Brisbane’s CBD has risen by 60% in the last five years. The fastest growing populations of people becoming homeless are the elderly and families with children. I am sure you would agree with me that this is a situation which is unacceptable.

A small but significant number of people can be considered to be chronically homeless. This is defined as having experienced homelessness for longer than 6 months and having a mental illness, disability and usually a co-occurring chemical dependency. These people often cycle between periods of sleeping rough and being accommodated in temporary housing. These are people who, due to their personal journey require support to maintain their housing.

The solution to their homelessness is supportive housing. Supportive housing is a very simple notion. Permanent, affordable housing matched with supportive services to assist those who experience chronic homelessness to maintain their housing. Supportive housing seeks to compliment existing housing and services.

About 3 years ago Micah Projects won an important federal government tender to implement a national 12 month demonstration project. The project took families who were homeless and had histories of failed tenancies and proved that they could successfully maintain their housing when they received intensive support services.

Micah Projects staff travelled to the USA to attend a National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness and to study supportive housing. In New York City they spent time with Common Ground, an organisation that is succeeding in taking the most vulnerable, the most visible, chronically homeless off the streets and placing them into permanent, affordable housing with onsite support services. Over 90% of these people successfully maintain their housing and their homelessness is ended. Rosanne Haggerty, CEO of Common Ground travelled to Brisbane in 2007 to spread the word about supportive housing. Some of you may remember she was our guest speaker at the Micah Projects annual general