How Uniting supports families experiencing homelessness

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 shortage of affordable housing stock and a bottleneck in public and transitional housing is fundamentally changing the nature of homelessness support programs.

Uniting Ballarat Family Homelessness Support worker Anna Crouch started in the role three years ago at a time when homeless clients would enter her program with accommodation in a transitional housing property.

She said now there was 'no way' that would 'ever' happen as the lack of public housing meant people stayed in transitional housing properties longer, causing a bottleneck.

Uniting Ballarat housing and homelessness coordinator Adam Liversage said he had allocated only one transitional housing property in the Central Highlands in the past five months.

Now families seeking help through the Family Homelessness Support program may be couchsurfing at the houses of family members or friends or living temporarily in hotels or motels.

Ms Crouch said they could be living with an ex-partner while looking for their own accommodation or in a private rental but given a deadline to leave.

"Transitional housing and the Office of Housing (public housing) stock turnover is quite low," she said.

"It used to be a lot quicker so we were able to follow through with a client and move them from transitional to Office of Housing properties but we haven't had an offer for a very long time for any family group."

Ms Crouch said there were now more families experiencing homelessness in crisis accommodation in hotels and motels than there had been in previous years.

She said families were having to stay in that crisis accommodation for longer periods of time due to a lack of options.

"It could have been anywhere between two and four weeks on a maximum before but now I have families that have been in hotels for two months and more," Ms Crouch said.

Family Homelessness Support worker Leonie Quarrell has been working in the program for 10 years.

She said it was difficult for so many families living in motels and hotels for extended periods of time.

"Of course there are no cooking facilities, it is very difficult for meal preparation. There is no privacy for anyone," she said.

"All of the things that we take for granted as a family, being able to sit around a table together, are just not available.

"Those interactions where everybody stops and sits down is when family stuff, school stuff gets discussed and there is just no space for that."

Ms Quarrell said it had been incredibly difficult for families in motels and hotels during COVID-19 lockdown periods, with children completing homeschooling and no private outdoor space.

The Family Homelessness Support program team works with approximately 10 clients for a 13 week period, however the length of support time is flexible depending on a client's individual needs.

Clients enter the program through referrals from Uniting's homelessness entry point workers.

Program staff complete an initial assessment to identify their needs and goals.

Supports provided can include referrals to drug and alcohol counsellors, assistance navigating the medical system, liaising with child protection and assisting with Centrelink payment set up.

Other supports are mental health treatment referrals, assistance attending house inspections, advocacy regarding utility bills or to real estate agents and providing funding for things like furniture and whitegoods.

"A lot of the peripheral issues will affect greatly how people are going to go when they are in housing and whether it is going to be sustainable," Ms Quarrell said.

"Each client and each family is different and has different needs. We aim to work for their best interests and their goals," Ms Crouch said.

Ms Quarrell said she had also seen an increase in the number of clients with a good private rental history presenting for help in recent times, because the rental market in Ballarat had become so competitive.

She said some clients may have owned a home their entire life and have no private rental history, so struggle to enter the market if forced to leave due to family breakdown or divorce.

"There are so many people applying for each individual property," she said.

"It is particularly a struggle for larger families. It is the number of children that are in the house and the wear and tear that landlords are worried about.

"Sometimes clients have to apply for properties that are less appropriate to their needs so they can get in."

Ms Crouch said getting people into private rentals and making sure they were 'rental ready' was usually the priority, with public housing as a 'backup plan'.

Uniting currently has more than 308 households on the priority list waiting for public housing. Of those households, 133 are placed in transitional housing.

Of the households not in transitional housing, 104 are waiting for one bedroom properties, 51 for two bedroom properties, 18 for three bedroom properties and two for four bedroom properties.

Ms Crouch said while some clients do receive offers of public housing, they could certainly not rely on it as a housing option.

"We always sell our public housing as a backup plan," she said.

The lack of affordable housing options for families can also cause families to lose their feelings of connection to community and identity.

"It is not just the initial loss the families feel from being homeless, it is the loss of the community, the connections, their friends and their identity as well," Ms Crouch said.

"The children may go to school in Wendouree but they get a property in Delacombe so the children have to leave the school and the friends they are used to.

"We do some work along the way about rebuilding the connection to community when they finally do find their own housing or even while they are in transitional housing."

READ WEEK ONE OF THE SERIES: The staff on the frontline of homelessness support in Ballarat

Ms Quarrell said helping clients rebuild their confidence and self-esteem was often another major focus of support.

"I am thinking of a couple of clients I have worked with recently who have been victims of family violence and have left," she said.

"For those clients you may spend the first six weeks on working just building up their self esteem. It might take you three weeks to get them to talk about anything that has gone on.

"It is not only that they have left their partner but they have left everything they owned, their children have had to leave school and they haven't got a home.

"There is often a feeling by the survivor of the family violence that she has failed.

"I had one lady recently who had to give up her work because she didn't have the babysitting arrangements for the children anymore and therefore the income goes down and her prospects are limited with private rental.

"On top of that she had been used to a particular level of income because when you have a partner working and you are working your level of being able to provide and the ease with which you do it is vastly different to when you are on Centrelink payments.

"For others they have become separated from previous friendship groups, they might be living in someone's lounge and trying to get some sense of normalcy back in their life, so that confidence-building is major.

"Because we haven't got any anyway, the housing can sometimes become quite secondary. It is the other stuff around it. You can build those things up and hope for the best for the rest."

READ WEEK TWO OF THE SERIES: Rental assistance program maintains tenancies to prevent homelessness

Ms Quarrell and Ms Crouch said securing housing was not a smooth or direct road for families experiencing homelessness.

"Over the years we have seen victims of family violence go back to the partner because living in a motel is too hard," she said.

"We have seen clients relapse back to drug and alcohol use because they haven't been in their forever home and haven't been able to make that connection to the community.

"Whether it was gambling or drugs and alcohol, those things can take over and derail their progress. It is not where they want to be but addiction is quite strong in so many different ways."

"It is not a smooth road and it is not a direct road," Ms Quarrell said.

"I think it is about the journey along the way and it is about people's readiness to work on whatever it is that they need to have the resources and capacity to get and maintain a home.

"That's why I think the lack of transitional housing is really more critical than maybe even the lack of public housing.

READ WEEK THREE OF THE SERIES: Uniting program gives families a place to call home

"You can't have one without the other but at the end of the day, but if you can get people housed in an ongoing way prior to getting into private rental or Office of Housing, there is an opportunity to have people engage over a period of time and develop trust in you.

"You are able to support them with some of that peripheral stuff that will see them through the rough times and the bumps in the road.

"I think that is the most important part, that connection that you have made. You might not realise how strong that is until it is later down the track and someone will ring you and say 'this is happening, what do you think I can do' or 'where can I get some support'.

"We always say to people if something goes wrong give us a call because we are here and can sort through it. It is those phone calls that prevent them possibly slipping back into homelessness."

The coronavirus pandemic created additional challenges for the Family Homelessness Support team with restrictions on face to face support.

Mr Liversage said the pandemic would also make Christmas tougher for so many families this year, without community events and limitations on the 3BA Christmas Appeal.

"For a lot of our workers, this is a really important time for us and our clients," he said.

"For these workers the fun part of the year is Christmas, seeing the families together and seeing the kids getting toys. We have lost that this year, that reward for all of the hard work throughout the year."

"I hate to think about the children that miss out. They have got no control over the situations they are in," Ms Crouch said.

"Imagine the families in a hotel without the Christmas tree or somewhere to sit down and have a Christmas dinner together. That is tough to think about."

People experiencing or at risk of homelessness can contact Uniting on 5332 1286 or the 24-hour hotline on 1800 825 955.