Led by Ruah Community Services, a number of Western Australian organisations have made a commitment to end homelessness.
The WA Alliance to End Homelessness is not looking to ‘manage’ homelessness, rather it wants to eliminate it. Ruah CEO Debra Zanella (pictured) said about four years ago Ruah met with a group of CEOs who said they were tired of not making progress in that space.
‘We began to change the narrative. We asked the questions – is it possible to end homelessness? We looked at practices around the world, where things had actually worked,’ MsZanella said.
Taking its lead from the Brisbane ‘500 Lives 500 Homes’ campaign, where a coalition of government and non-government agencies set a goal to house 500 individuals and families in three years, Ruah decided to launch its 50 Lives 50 Homes campaign – ‘without any funding’.
‘The Sisters of St John of God funded that first part of that project for $2 million and now three years later we’ve received more money from the sisters. By the time it finishes, they will have funded us for five years.’
Ms Zanella said beginning its operations the group has housed more than 269 people in more than200 houses. ‘What is more important is that over 83% of people have retained their tenancies and have shown improvements on all of the key indicators such as chronic illnesses and mental health.’
As a result of the work of the WA Alliance to End Homelessness and its advocacy, in December 2019 the state government committed $100 million for social housing.
Ms Zanella said $32.5 million was committed to implement a housing first approach across WA but starting in Perth [and some of the other bigger regional centres] based on the success of the 50 Lives, 50 Homes project. She said 50 Lives was successful because it was the collaboration of 27 agencies.
‘We happen to be the lead agency and the backbone, and we are now at the point in the wider Perth and regional areas where we can truly begin to shift the system.’
The WA Alliance is also connected with the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness. ‘In that work we’ve all shifted to this methodology called a “By name” list. What’s really important about this is we’ve kept a database of who we’ve housed. This tool allows us to monitor who is entering and exiting homelessness.
‘Which means that if you come into the system, we know where you’ve come from, we house you, we keep a track of you. If you fall into homelessness again, we know you and your needs.’
Ms Zanella said they’ve changed the narrative.
‘Rather than counting we’ve housed 269 people, we count down to zero. That is we’re counting, 50 people homeless, 30 people, 20, at zero which means the rate of people coming into homelessness is the same rate at which we house them.’
The data gives the group the confidence to say ‘in such a suburb we have zero homelessness’. ‘The moment someone comes into homelessness our coordinated response and housing response is so good that we immediately get them into housing.’
She said Ireland had established a national housing first approach where effectively the outreach worker will say to a homeless person, ‘these are the keys to the unit’. ‘They then provide intensive, wrap-around care’.
Ms Zanella said the move to a housing-first approach is a system shift. ‘Critics say, “this is just the new shiny thing”, but the evidence is compelling. We have got the runs on the board, the evidence to say what works.
‘Yes, it’s early days and shifting a system doesn’t happen in one unitary movement. All these pieces move at the same time and the really hard bit is that you kind of have to hold the loose parameters of the system and continue to guide it. The tendency is that when change happens people want to revert to what was.’
She said it was an exciting development in Perth and for Western Australia.
‘We’re making a significant difference to people’s lives. You just have to read the case studies and listen to people talk. It’s things like “I can put my diabetic medication in the fridge, get fresh vegetables. My dog is safe”.
‘It is hard to read that stuff and not understand why we don’t believe housing isn’t a human right. It is phenomenal that Australian politicians do not believe that housing is a human right, like clean water. I challenge any of them to survive a week on the streets. I could not, I do not have the internal resilience to do that.’
Ms Zanella said the work around housing the homeless has been a collective effort.
‘Ruah could not have done it by itself. We did it because of the work of companion agencies. We developed relationships and they could see it was making a difference to the people we work with,’ Ms Zanella said.
ABOUT RUAH.ORG.AU
Ruah is an ancient Hebrew word meaning vital breath, wind, air and spirit. The name was chosen in2001 to honour the legacy of its founders, The Daughters of Charity.
Today, Ruah is an independent, not-for-profit community service, boldly working to end poverty and social disadvantage.
This article first appeared in Madonna magazine Summer 2020/21 edition. Madonna is a quarterly magazine that promotes spirituality in daily life. For daily prayer reflections and more articles on faith-filled people, subscribe to Madonna magazine at www.madonnamagazine.com.au.