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.

Uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic is causing heightened anxiety for families and individuals at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

Uniting Ballarat homelessness support workers Maree Drennan and Lisa Keddie have re-assessed budgets with clients since the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement was reduced.

Ms Keddie said many clients had felt stressed about when the additional payment may cease.

Ms Keddie and Ms Drennan have their own anxieties too, about how the housing situation for those on low incomes will likely get 'uglier' before it improves.

They said a number of factors related to COVID-19 could exacerbate the struggles for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness in the coming months.

Ms Drennan said people were remaining in transitional housing properties longer while waiting for public housing properties to free up.

The flow on consequences of this system blockage meant people were living in motels and hotels for a number of months whereas in past years they would be transferred to transitional housing within weeks.

Ms Drennan said she was concerned options for crisis accommodation in hotels and motels would be reduced in coming months as tourists return to the city.

More hotels and motels had accepted Uniting clients throughout COVID-19 while restrictions on tourism were in place.

Ms Drennan said another worrying factor could make the private rental market even harder to access.

Air BnB properties that opened up for six month or nine month tenancies in March when COVID hit will likely be returned to tourism accommodation, reducing private rental options for clients.

"I think it is certainly going to get uglier before it gets better," Ms Drennan said.

"I think one of our saving graces was the announcement this week that $80 million that is going to be injected into social housing in Ballarat. That is a bit of hope," Ms Keddie said.

Ms Drennan is a family support worker for Uniting's Supporting Families at Risk program.

She provides intensive support for 12 months or more for families at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

The type and length of the support depends on the client's individual needs.

Parents Daniel and Kelly* and their three children Adam 10, Rebecca 8, and Kylie 6, presented to Uniting after spending two nights in their car and were referred to the Supporting Families at Risk program.

The family moved to the Ballarat area hoping to improve employment prospects after Daniel lost his job in Melbourne.

They had been living with family but after not being able to gain employment or a rental property decided to leave when relationships were breaking down in the overcrowded household.

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

The family then lived in a caravan park for several weeks but were unable to maintain the payments on a Centrelink income so spent two nights in their car before seeking support.

Uniting placed the family in a motel and assisted with co-funding the accommodation. The Supporting Families at Risk program developed a case plan and worked on securing housing as a priority.

Daniel and Kelly secured a rental property after living in the motel for nine weeks and Uniting supported them with initial rent and set up costs and continued to help them settle into their new environment.

Ms Drennan said searching for a private rental property could be demoralising for families that may have to make hundreds of applications due to low vacancy rates and high competition.

Ms Keddie is the coordinator of Uniting program Housing Ready that educates clients on how to navigate the private rental system and sustain tenancies.

She said education was important because clients' rental applications would be overlooked if they did not have basic skills like knowing how to present a good application and having references.

"One particular participant in my program had applied for 84 properties," Ms Keddie said.

"She was just going for anything and everything in the end. She went for this property and she had built a bit of a relationship with this particular real estate agent.

"The agent had 62 applications for this property and my participant got it. It was just amazing.

"I rang the real estate agent and asked for some feedback, she said she presented really well, she spoke really well, one of the first things she did was walk up to the agent, shook her hand and introduced herself, and said 'this is what I am looking for, I have got a son, this is the perfect location for his schooling'.

"In the program we talk about that stuff like dress as if you are going for a job interview. We went shopping at the op shop and picked out some really smart clothes and they were her housing inspection clothes."

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

Ms Drennan said securing a private rental was always their main aim for clients, with public housing as a backup option.

She said this kept as many people out of the system as possible and families could wait years before receiving an offer of public housing due to the lack of supply.

Ms Keddie said it was particularly important young people learnt how to navigate the private rental market.

"We want them to be building their own rental histories for the future," she said.

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

Ms Drennan said the support she provided through the Supporting Families at Risk program was a holistic approach, working on other issues broader than housing.

"Not having a home is a big stress so that is usually the main thing to work on," she said.

"Often we will work alongside that on other issues if they are in the right headspace to make change.

"But once they get housed, that is when you can start to look at some of the issues that might have led them to be in that position.

"It could have been family violence, it could have been family breakdown, it could have been loss of employment, it could be an addiction or gambling or drugs or a breakup.

"If a client is in a space where they are ready to address things, having a support worker is a really great asset. We are there to support them and guide them and try to help them achieve those goals."

Ms Keddie said in her role as Housing Ready coordinator, program participants were usually ready to make big changes, but needed the support to do so.

"Sometimes they have got to face some pretty big demons to move past those issues," she said.

"The program at times for some people can be quite confronting, but they are troopers."

"That is why at the end it is so good if they can get that positive result of a house," Ms Drennan said.

Supporting Families at Risk and Housing Ready, like all Uniting programs The Courier has featured, work to prevent the cycle of homelessness.

But what changes need to happen to ensure more people have the skills and knowledge to navigate the private rental system and maintain tenancies before they end up needing to seek support?

Both Ms Keddie and Ms Drennan said early education was key.

"I often find my participants have come from low socio economic backgrounds so they may have finished school at a very young age, experienced family breakdowns and they have been homeless for years," Ms Keddie said.

"They haven't had the opportunity to learn those basic skills, those life skills that you do need to be able to sustain a healthy lifestyle and make good choices.

"There definitely should be more education from an early age. It should start from home and then carry on through primary and high school."

Ms Drennan said she experienced a period in life in her 20s when she was unemployed and on Centrelink benefits, but managed to maintain housing.

She said she realised the key difference between her experience and those of the clients she was seeing who had become homeless was a person's ability to communicate and share.

"The fact is if someone is on JobSeeker they are pretty lucky if they can afford to have accommodation on their own. A lot of the time it requires sharing," Ms Drennan said.

"Because a lot of the clients we see have had no role modelling and not much education, their capacity to share with someone else is not like a lot of young people who get by having four in a house like I did when I was young.

"If you couldn't do that because you didn't have the capacity to communicate and share, or sometimes we have people with mental illness that makes sharing impossible, you are in a really hard spot.

"JobSeeker is such a tiny amount of money that to get a one bedroom place you are losing half your money or more."

READ WEEK FOUR OF THE SERIES: How Uniting supports families experiencing homelessness

Ms Keddie said she had seen participants live on JobSeeker in a one bedroom private rental in the past, but they had no money leftover to live comfortably.

"All it gives them is stable accommodation, a roof over their head, they have enough money to pay some food and bills hopefully when they come in but in terms of a social life, there is nothing leftover," she said.

"It is really hard, because a lot of our participants don't have the skills required to be able to share a facility with another person without it erupting into a big horrible mess."

"That is the stuff they need to do a lot more on in schools. That is so important and is so neglected," Ms Drennan said.

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

*not their real names

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.