Enhanced collaboration between the community sector and the Palaszczuk Government will transform how services are delivered for people experiencing homelessness.
To mark the end of Homelessness Week, Housing and Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni joined Redland City Mayor Karen Williams to announce a $1.76 million targeted investment to fund the state-wide change.
“This year, the focus for Homelessness Week was ‘Housing ends Homelessness’,” he said.
“We all know how important it is for Queenslanders to have a safe, secure and sustainable place to call home.
“But we also know that, for some people, remaining in that home and ending their homelessness also depends on ensuring the right support is provided to them at the right time in their local community.
“We have some outstanding organisations working hard to help people and what we want to do is strengthen their capacity to do so.”
“We’ll be working with networks in key areas to look at how they currently operate and what is required to better integrate services in each location.”
The Redlands-Bayside Housing and Homelessness Network includes representatives from the department, Redland City Council, community organisations and other government agencies.
Mayor Karen Williams welcomed the announcement by Minister de Brenni, which followed a number of meetings between the two community leaders to discuss homelessness.
“Like all communities, Redlands Coast sadly has residents who don’t have a safe place to lay their head each night, and I am pleased this initiative will help give them the support they need,” Cr Williams said.
“I regularly speak with our amazing local community groups who were telling me they needed more support to provide Redlanders with a safe place to sleep.
“On behalf of my community I took this message to Minister de Brenni earlier this year and I am genuinely appreciative of the speed and enthusiasm with which he has responded and I know all Redlanders share my appreciation.”
Member for Redlands Kim Richards welcomed the investment and encouraged services to work collaboratively on addressing homelessness, especially on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands.
“The Southern Moreton Bay Islands face many challenges and an integrated and targeted approach to tackle homelessness on the islands will help to alleviate many of these challenges.” she said.
Member for Capalaba Don Brown said that bringing together government and non-government services ensures the best service response is provided for individuals with the resources available in the Redlands.
“By strengthening these networks and partnerships across Queensland, we can more effectively help people get the range of services and support they need to achieve safe, secure and sustainable housing.” He said
Mr de Brenni said as well as supporting regional networks, the response to homelessness in Brisbane would be boosted.
“We will be working closely with Brisbane-based housing and homelessness services to design and invest in new measures which will strengthen our collective response to homelessness,” he said.
This targeted investment to support integrated service responses across regional networks will complement ongoing partnership projects being rolled out in the Queensland Homelessness Compact Workplan 2018-2020.
