$100m fund targets rising homelessness

THE NSW government has announced a $100 million investment into the Homelessness Innovation Fund.

The fund comes as the 2024 NSW Street Count revealed a 26 per cent increase in rough sleeping over the past year.

The government is aiming to deliver more effective support to those experiencing homelessness, including the rapidly growing number of women and children fleeing domestic violence.

The fund will support frontline organisations with resources to develop creative and innovative solutions to the housing crisis and enable the NSW Government to develop better responses to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson said the government could not solve homelessness alone.

“This fund empowers organisations to deliver better services and outcomes for those experiencing homelessness.

“We’re adopting a housing-first approach, but we’re also investing in comprehensive on-the-ground services for those at risk or currently experiencing homelessness.”

The government also aims to reduce reliance on private hotels and motels by listening to the expertise and lived experience of non-government partners and frontline services and providing grants for better-supported emergency accommodation.

In the Northern Rivers homeless figures are dynamic. Homeless NSW data shows the 2021 census count of 529 homeless citizens. However, the client data of homelessness services put that figure closer to 1,170. In Lismore, the census count was 244, with service client data showing 824. Ballina showed 131 in the census and 363 according to local services.

In Byron, the census count was 251, with services data showing that the number had dropped to 200 in the past year, however the NSW 2024 street count pegged the figure at 348.

How the new funding will be distributed across the state and which regional and rural communities will be supported is yet to be made clear.

The $100 million innovation fund is a core element of the $6.6 billion Building Homes for NSW program, representing the state’s largest-ever investment in public housing and homelessness services.

All Community Housing Providers (CHPs), or those on the path to accreditation, can apply for the fund from mid-September until June 2025.