 |
Adelaide Zero Project Newsletter: May 2019
Last week, with our friends at the Hutt Street Centre, our Zero partners and a record number of volunteers, we completed our second annual Connections Week. We are now excited to share with you the outcomes.
In this newsletter we have updates about the rest of the Adelaide Zero Project and much more. We're also asking you to help raise awareness of homelessness in a range of ways.
Homelessness is a complex problem, but the simplest way to tackle it is for our entire community to come together and stop ignoring it.
There are a range of ways you can help raise awareness: share the information we found during Connections Week, and check out the information on the Everybody's Home and the Raise the Rate campaigns.
Lastly, our great reads are included and our picks of the interesting things going on around town.
We'd love to hear your feedback about these newsletters, and if we've missed anything important going on, let us know.
Cheers,
David Pearson
Executive Director - Don Dunstan Foundation
On Behalf of the entire Adelaide Zero Project Team.
|
Connections Week is a defining component of the Adelaide Zero Project.
Since
Adelaide's first Connections Week last year,
a By-Name List has been established. The s
ector can now
actively track the number of rough sleepers and gain a better understanding of their needs, to coordinate and prioritise housing and support for the homeless in our city.
During Connections Week (20 - 24 May 2019), 280 dedicated volunteers from across the sector connected with 119 p
eople sleeping rough in the inner city. You can read the data and learn more about the event below.
Our goal is for Adelaide to be the first city in Australia to achieve and sustain Functional Zero street homelessness.
Connections Week is a collaborative effort led by Hutt St Centre, Don Dunstan Foundation, Neami National SA and
many other Adelaide Zero Project Partners. Thanks to the many enthusiastic volunteers for their efforts over the past week and we applaud all those involved in addressing homelessness in our city!
|
|
|
Community Briefing Event
Last week the Community Briefing event
provided an overview of the results captured during Adelaide Zero Project's 2019 Connections Week.
Some key outcomes were:
- We engaged with 119 people sleeping rough during Connections Week 2019
- 60 people were identified for the first time
- Plus an additional 167 people already known to be sleeping rough
on the By-Name List
- A total of 227 people are currently sleeping rough in Adelaide
Although 161 housing placements have been offered to people on the By-Name List, recent data from Connections Week 2019 indicates the total number of rough sleepers in Adelaide has increa
sed by nearly 60%.
As the Adelaide Zero Project progresses and our homelessness system improves, we expect these numbers to rise and fall until the system successfully sustains Functional Zero street homelessness.
This year in Connections Week, we collected brand new data that shows a high number of people sleeping rough experience complex issues such as physical and mental issues, substance abuse and relationship breakdowns.
To see all the latest Dashboard updates,
click here.
You can also download the slides and data from our Community Briefing here and help by sharing this information with your networks and on social media!
In addition to the data released, our new Adelaide Zero Project video summarises the fantastic work involved in moving towards Functional Zero homelessness in Adelaide. Thanks to End Homelessness SA for producing the video!
|
|
|
|
|
Everybody's Home's Candidate Action Campaign
Election day has come and gone, but we want to continue to draw attention to the importance of housing and homelessness though the Everybody's Home's campaign.
Everybody's Home put together a simple tool which allows people to enter their postcode and send an email to their local candidates, to find out where they stand on housing and homelessness.
The campaign's five key priorities are:
- Support for first home-buyers, by setting the tax system to make it fairer for ordinary Australians wanting to buy a home.
- Develop a National Housing strategy to meet Australia's identified shortfall of 500,000 social and affordable rental homes.
- A better deal for renters, by changing the tenancy laws to protect tenants against evictions, unfair rent rises, discrimination and landlords who refuse to maintain properties.
- Immediate relief for Australians in chronic rental stress, by increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
And most importantly from an Adelaide Zero Project's perspective:
- A plan to end homelessness, to halve homelessness in five years and end it in ten.
As a proud supporter of the 'Everybody's Home Campaign', we'll continue to work to ensure ending homelessness is a priority for every level of Government in Australia.
|
|
Raise the Rate Campaign Forum
|
|
Newstart currently pays recipients $273 per week ($39 a day). This has not risen for 25 years, however the cost of living, especially housing, has increased.
Educating on the social and economic impacts of this disparity, Australia's Fairness Failure Forum was held at the National Wine Centre of Australia on Tuesday 30 April 2019. The panel consisted of co-ordinator of the SA Anti-Poverty Network, Hayden Patterson, economist and partner with Deloitte Access Economics, Nicki Hutley, CEO of ACOSS, Cassandra Goldie and CE of The Wyatt Trust, Paul Madden.
ACOSS and many other organisations are campaigning to raise the Newstart and Youth Allowance rate. A minimum increase of the rate by $75 a week will not only promote fairness and lead to 12,000 new jobs in Australia - it will help us to achieve our goal of ending street homelessness.
The Don Dunstan Foundation was proud to support this event in partnership with Philanthropy Australia, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), the South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS) and The Wyatt Benevolent Institution.
|
|
|
Congratulations, Street Connect!
Street Connect was recently announced as winner of a national award
for
Using Technology to Connect to the Community
in the 'Best Government Agency' category at the Australian Not-For-Profit Technology Awards.
Street Connect is a tool that enables the public to help connect people who are sleeping rough with critical services provided by Street to Home.
This award is an important recognition at a national level and demonstrates that South Australia continues to be a leader in developing innovative approaches to ending homelessness.
The tool
uses 'crowd-sourcing' of community knowledge to help Street to Home locate people sleeping rough. It also assists the work of the Adelaide Zero Project, as people sleeping rough can be added to the By-Name List.
Since its launch in August 2018, more than 600 Street Connect referrals have been made. Of all the referrals, where Street to Home's outreach team was able to make contact, 13% were for people sleeping rough and not currently connected with any homelessness services. For these people the connection was a critical step towards receiving support.
This award is fantastic recognition and we would like to congratulate everyone involved!
|
|
Finalist and runners up, the 2019 Australian Not-for-Profit Technology Awards.
|
What We're Reading, Listening to and Attending
What we're reading:
- Lord Mayors call for action on housing affordability | Patricia Karvelas, ABC Radio National
-
FIVEaa Radio interview | Alan Hickey chats with David Pearson (Executive Director of the Don Dunstan Foundation), and Scott (previously homeless) about Connections Week, a program to end homelessness in Adelaide
.
Listen here
What we're attending:
-
Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration 2019 |
Tues 28 May, 6.30 pm - 8.30 pm at Bonython Hall, The University of Adelaide.
The 13th annual oration taking place during Reconciliation Week is a showcase focusing on reconciliation, storytelling, culture and the arts. BOOK NOW
($10 - $15)
- Future of renting: Opportunities and challenges | Tues 11 June, 3.45 pm - 6.30 pm at Art Gallery of South Australia. There is a growing recognition of the need to improve the housing experience for tenants and ensure greater standards of service provision. How should policy makers, real estate professionals, tenants and the community sector respond? BOOK NOW ($88)
|
|
|
|
|
