CentaCare Wilcannia-Forbes will be leading the charge to try to address homelessness in Forbes as part of the NSW government’s new homeless reforms which came into effect yesterday.
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The Going Home Staying Home reforms were implemented state-wide on Monday as part of the NSW government’s new approach to the delivery of specialist homelessness services (SHS).
CentaCare Wilcannia-Forbes was the successful tenderer of the delivery of the SHS and the new housing team were inducted yesterday.
These include the majority of the staff at Forbes Women’s Refuge who were rehired in their positions.
CentaCare will cover a huge area including Forbes, Parkes, Condobolin, Lake Cargelligo, Grenfell and Cowra, which had previously never had a SHS.
CentaCare’s housing manager Brian Asimus is in charge of the rollout of the reform and said it’s a win for the region.
“It’s a fantastic result for Parkes and Forbes because as of Monday [yesterday], there won’t be any gaps in the service,” he said.
“Formerly we had a youth service available for 16-25 year-olds which was funded for three days a week and the Forbes Refuge for Women which is a 24/7 on-call service but for families with children who weren’t aged between 16 and 25 there was no service and single males over 25 there is no service.
“So it was identified as a huge service gap.”
Mr Asimus said the Going Home Staying Home reforms have identified and are attempting to address some of those gaps through a client-focused approach which tries to address the causes of homelessness such as mental illness, drug/alcohol addiction, teenage pregnancy, sexual assault or financial difficulties.
“The idea is to provide more support not more houses for people...we can’t keep tossing beds at the homeless - that won’t solve the issue,” he said.
“Homelessness is the symptom not the cause.”
There are a number of myths surrounding homelessness within the community and Mr Asimus said the biggest one he wants to break is that homelessness doesn’t exist in Forbes.
“Homelessness is an all of community issue that is not addressed because of the train of thought that it doesn’t exist in Parkes and Forbes - it does,” he said.
“There’s a reason we don’t need to advertise our services - homelessness is increasing.
“The old myth was that you were only homeless if you were sleeping on the street, but that’s not the case.
“People accept that couch surfers exist but they don’t accept that those kids are homeless.”
The Going Home Staying Home reforms have received much public backlash as a majority of faith-based organisations, including CentaCare, have been chosen to deliver the specialist homelessness services.
With three quarters of the women’s services to be run by religious groups, the future of women’s refuges is at the heart of the backlash, with many critics suggesting that these services will be closed or opened up to men as well as women.
There is also a fear that women will be less likely to seek help at women’s shelters if they are run by men, who are often in charge of faith-based organisations.
Mr Asimus said the concern that all refuges in NSW will close is a myth and that the Forbes Women’s Refuge will continue to be for women-only.
“The Women’s Refuge is our main priority and it’s important that we don’t lose that service,” he said.
“It’s about increasing services not losing them and in fact, funding for SHS has been increased by $13 million.”
Mr Asimus said that women will still be able to access the refuge and that women-only refuges around the state will be retained.
CentaCare will now be delivering a centralised service covering all four demographics - young people, single males, single females and families.
Mr Asimus said the motto of under-promise/over-deliver is particularly relevant with these new reforms and that people need to understand that they won’t automatically fix all problems.
“The impact may be that we just support one family and if we do that, then that’s one family off the street,” he said.
It is hoped that the program outcomes contribute to the NSW government’s goals of supporting the most vulnerable people in the community and reducing homelessness.