Roger Jaensch,Minister for Housing
The Tasmanian Government is continuing to invest in our community as we recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and rebuild a stronger Tasmania.
In recognition of the need to help more Tasmanians seek safe overnight accommodation, the 2020-21 Budget will allocate $16.8 million to continue the Safe Space program as a 24/7 wrap-around service in Burnie, Launceston and Hobart.
This will allow the program to run through to June 2022, with over $6 million of this investment used to continue to deliver general health and mental health supports to people experiencing homelessness.
This commitment will continue to ensure that Tasmanians who are sleeping rough can access a safe overnight refuge, and the supports they need to access other health and housing services, which assists clients to secure and sustain longer-term accommodation that meets their needs.
This is part of our commitment to invest more into housing and essential services around our State and complements the other initiatives to help Tasmanians.
This includes additional capacity for Housing Connect to provide emergency accommodation in hotels, motels and cabins statewide, and increased resources for mental and primary health support services for clients in brokered accommodation who need them.
We are also continuing to invest in our Affordable Housing Strategy, with an EOI recently advertised to deliver up to 1000 additional new social housing dwellings over the next three years under our Community Housing Growth Program.
The program forms part of our construction blitz, underpinning $3.1 billion of construction and investment, and will go a long way to providing secure, long-term accommodation for Tasmanians waiting for housing.
