Submission in response to Green Paper on Homelessness

The Green Paper provides a comprehensive overview of homelessness in Australia and profiles a number of initiatives here and overseas that are attempting to address the issue. While Anglicare welcomes the emphasis on integrated service delivery, the engagement of mainstream services and the need for a nationally coordinated approach, Anglicare is concerned about the depiction in the Green Paper of the SAAP system. The criticisms that are made of SAAP’s performance in relation to delivering long-term outcomes for clients is not set within a context of chronic under-funding and an overall shortage of long-term affordable housing options to provide exit points for clients. The Green Paper also overlooks successful service models such as the transitional services that operate in Tasmania. In many ways, the Tasmanian service system operates quite differently to SAAP services in other parts of the country, and there are valuable strategies used in Tasmania that could be applied elsewhere.