The Courier is exploring the experience of people experiencing homelessness in Ballarat and the staff who work to support them through a new five-week story series.
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The series will feature five programs as part of Uniting Ballarat's housing and homelessness response, covering initial assessment and planning, private rental assistance, to supporting families at risk, housing support workers and finding a place to call home.
A team of workers at Ballarat's main housing agency Uniting is helping people experiencing hardship stay in the private rental market and avoid homelessness.
Mike Blyth and Ada Watson work in Uniting's Private Rental Assistance Program, known as PRAP, and worker Nicole Manford provides outreach assistance through a new program PRAP Plus.
The team works with people who are at risk of losing their tenancy due to personal crisis, short-term financial crisis, rent arrears or tenancy disputes
They also help people experiencing homelessness enter the private rental market.
The PRAP program received a funding boost from the Department of Human Services this year to keep up with demand and respond to the increasing number of people experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
"The program is specifically aimed to reduce the number of people entering the homelessness cycle," Mr Blyth said.
"We support them when they present in a crisis, which could be due to unemployment, illness or something else that has caused their household income to be reduced and put them at risk of not being able to manage their rent commitments."
Mr Blyth has been working in the PRAP program for a few years and was joined by Ms Watson and Ms Manford in PRAP Plus in March and April this year.
The program is specifically aimed to reduce the number of people entering the homelessness cycle.
- Mike Blyth, Private Rental Assistance Program
The program received a $164,000 funding boost to provide increased support to people struggling throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The PRAP team has supported 429 households since COVID-19 hit.
Mr Blyth said 253 of those households were new clients while others may have been supported previously but continue to struggle to make ends meet.
"They can present here and we work with them to put in a plan so it is sustainable," he said.
"We prop them up (financially) for that period while their plan gets put into place."
RELATED COVERAGE: Return to lockdown reduces options for people experiencing homelessness
PRAP financial support includes one-off rent in arrears or advance payments, bond or debts, depending on a household's circumstances.
The team can also assist with cost of white goods, furniture, appliances and clothing.
Mr Blyth said he had seen an increase in the number of people presenting for help who were unemployed due to COVID-19.
Data shows 4.4 per cent of PRAP clients since March were full-time employed and 12.4 per cent were part-time employed.
Mr Blyth said regardless of the coronavirus supplement for JobSeeker and JobKeeper recipients, people were still finding it difficult to make ends meet and a large proportion were women.
Of the 429 supports provided since March, 269 were to females and 138 were to males.
"A lot of the people who are approaching us for support are women who may have been in a family violence scenario and have had to leave or have experienced a relationship breakdown," Mr Blyth said.
"They usually have the children and that pressure."
READ WEEK ONE OF THE SERIES: The staff on the frontline of homelessness support in Ballarat
Ms Watson said PRAP worked in conjunction with other support services, including family violence agencies.
"COVID has increased people's stress and that is taking a toll in so many ways. It is a domino effect," she said. "I think that is why it is really important people know that we are here."
The PRAP team has also been taking referrals from Federation University to help international students who are struggling to maintain their tenancies as they may have lost their job and are not eligible for government support.
Uniting housing and homelessness coordinator Adam Liversage said the PRAP assessment process was quick, easy and safe for clients, providing an immediate response that has an immediate effect.
Ms Watson said it helped people to know they had a safety net and someone they could turn to for support during times of crisis.
She said there was more to the program than making rent payments, as staff would help with removals, advocate to agents for rent reductions or to break a lease if a property is unaffordable and provide help to find a new property.
Ms Watson said the one thing they could not help with was affordability.
"They might be in a shared lease with someone who moves out, that person has gone and it turns out the rent is way more than they can afford," she said.
"Rather than us get them in further trouble we can then go into bat for them to break the lease and find a cheaper house."
Ms Manford said she had supported 84 people through the PRAP Plus program since she started in the role in April.
Of those, 52 have been women and the majority have been leaving family violence and trying to find a new place to live.
Ms Manford said the demand for rental properties in Ballarat and the region was 'crazy'.
"The feedback I am getting from agents is for any average property they will get between 30 and 40 applications," she said.
"With the national rental affordability scheme, a landlord can get a tax break for offering a property at a cheaper price. Those kind of properties are getting anywhere between 80 and 90 applications.
"One of those properties advertised a couple of weeks ago had 40 applications within 12 hours.
"It is very very competitive and that is why I think programs like ours are so important because there is so many people that need our support around the application process, what to provide and how to present."
RELATED COVERAGE: Hundreds of people are living homeless in Ballarat amid COVID-19
Ms Watson said she expected demand for support through the PRAP program would increase if the federal government cut the coronavirus supplement.
However, the number of affordable private rentals for people on JobSeeker is already extremely limited as real estate agents only assess applicants as suitable for a property if the rent is less than 30 per cent of their weekly wage.
We support them and set them up for the best possible chance of success.
- Nicole Manford, Private Rental Assistance Program Plus
This is calculated using the JobSeeker payment rate without the additional coronavirus supplement.
Ms Manford said there was almost no affordable rental properties for people on the JobSeeker payment.
"One of the challenges I find in my role is keeping people's morale up and their confidence," she said.
"On average, most of the clients I am working with, we are at the roundabout between 50 and 60 applications before they are successful.
"These are usually people with a good rental history and people that present really well on paper, so you could imagine if you are getting 20 or 30 rejections, that starts to take a toll on you.
"It takes a toll on your confidence and it takes a toll on your ability to want to continue."
Ms Watson said many people did not realise they could be only a job loss or a relationship breakdown away from homelessness.
"This stuff happens every day and we have got to be here to help these people to get back to where they need to be, to know they have got someone in their corner at all times," she said.
"It is a quick solution and it gives people a real sense of hope that they are not alone, they are supported and we wrap ourselves around them," Mr Blyth said.
Ms Manford said she had supported 20 clients into private rentals since April, by helping them with applications, speaking to agents, teaching them how to present well at an inspection and how to be a good tenant.
She provided an example of one man who had been living in a private rental property in Creswick with his partner before they moved to the Northern Territory together.
Their relationship fell apart and he came back to Creswick but could not find a rental, so had lived at a caravan park for a few years.
"He was employed and had a good rental history but lost contact with the agent he had," Ms Manford said.
"We did a bit of digging and tracked down the old agent he rented through, got a copy of his last rent ledger, got copies of all his rent receipts and uploaded it all with his online application.
"It turns out he applied for a property that was managed by an agent who used to work with his old agent, so all that research to track her down was worth it because he got approved for that property.
"Then Ada helped him with some furniture and some rent in advance. He was so happy and so grateful."
Mr Blyth told the story of a man he had helped who was illiterate, a single dad and had two boys at school.
He said the man did not have any appropriate technology for his children to continue their schooling at home when COVID-19 hit, so he bought them computers and other resources.
"He stopped paying rent to do that. He didn't know how to go about finding support," Mr Blyth said.
"Someone referred him to us and we were able to give him some advance rent and help him to get back into balance. That is a great outcome for the kids and him. He was very stressed."
Mr Liversage said as a part of PRAP's focus on preventing homelessness, Uniting was successful in receiving a tender to run a course teaching people how to be a good tenant.
He said information from the course was shared with PRAP clients and Uniting would be running the course at its accommodation facility Reid's Guest House and through youth programs.
Ms Watson said the financial support was a circuit breaker, a band aid that could fix the immediate problem, but other aspects of the program created long-term support and homelessness prevention.
"They absolutely know we are here, we have got their back," she said.
"That is a huge help for them going forward."
"We don't just get their name on the lease and say they are on their own. We support them and set them up for the best possible chance of success," Ms Manford said.
The Courier covered Uniting's homelessness entry point last week and will focus on the A Place to Call Home program next week.