As a teenager, Sonia Harrison says she was a “street kid” of Dandenong in Melbourne’s south-east. And ever since then, she’s done it tough.
After the death of her older brother in a police pursuit when she was 14, Harrison says she has battled drug addiction and floated in and out of crisis accommodation before inevitably returning to rough sleeping.
“I would go back to the streets, because that’s all I knew,” Harrison, 40, tells Guardian Australia.
In the first year of the pandemic, Harrison, a proud Aboriginal woman, was one of about 2,000 Victorians picked up by homelessness services and offered accommodation in hotels – part of a massive investment ensuring rough sleepers were able to safely isolate during lockdowns.
The state government backed up that initiative with the From Homelessness to a Home program (H2H), a $150m investment drawing on the values of the progressive Housing First model that has gained international recognition after it was pioneered in Finland.
The idea was those rough sleepers would be given a home of their own rather than sent back to crisis accommodation or the streets. And, most importantly, they’d have regular support to help maintain their new lives.
“[The government] realised there were a considerable proportion of those people who weren’t on a pathway to have a home,” says Jenny Smith, the chief executive of Victoria’s Council to Homeless People.
“That it wasn’t a temporary aberration, this was something that was structurally part of their lives.
“With people with this sort of complexity in their lives, if you provide them with social housing without that sort of level of support, half of them will be back homeless within two years. That’s the current experience ... It’s counterproductive.”
So Smith was dismayed when, according to her, last month’s state budget failed to continue funding the program at the current rate.
Smith calls the shortfall a $45m cut, a claim disputed by the Andrews government, which says the program had only ever been intended to receive elevated funding during the pandemic.
But there were concerns that some clients living in properties “head leased” by providers might be shunted out when those leases expired.
On Friday, the government appeared to back down, telling providers and Guardian Australia it had “identified additional funding” for the program.
Little further detail was provided, but the announcement came as a relief to Smith, who says it was “inevitable” that without more money some clients would slip back into homelessness.
But she’s still unhappy that when people drop out of the program, new clients won’t be added. Questions remain over what will occur when funding packages expire in mid-2023.
Smith says H2H should be expanded, pointing to the fact there are about 9,000 rough sleepers in Victoria.
Darren Smith, the chief executive of Aboriginal Housing Victoria, a social housing provider and advocacy organisation, agrees the H2H program is a circuit breaker – particularly for Aboriginal people, who are vastly overrepresented in the state’s homelessness statistics.
The Victorian Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Framework found the rate of Aboriginal people presenting to homelessness services rose to 17% in 2019-20, an increase 10 times the rate of other Victorians seeking support.
About 300, or 16%, of the 1,845 H2H households are Aboriginal, including Harrison.
After bouncing around, Harrison is now in her own place in Port Melbourne.
“What helped was seeing a housing worker every week,” Harrison says. “And we’d see what we needed to do to make my life better, on a weekly basis.”
That has included an offer of assistance with sourcing appliances and furniture when she moved in, helping her keep a stocked pantry and navigating government bureaucracy like the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Harrison has an intellectual disability and lives on a disability pension.
Importantly, the support has continued after Harrison had settled in.
Darren Smith says H2H has been a “really big improvement on the existing support packages” where after people are placed in housing “within 16 weeks they’re on their own”.
“They need support for at least six months [to] two years to at least be supported into a position where they can manage their tenancy,” he says. “And, to be honest, I have concerns that there are people who need even longer support.”
The program has faced some hiccups, with residents in some apartment blocks where H2H clients lived complaining about anti-social behaviour, highlighting the complexity involved in rolling out the scheme when social housing stock is limited. Providers also found it difficult to source properties due to the tight rental market.
But homelessness agencies believe the program has been a success so far and reducing funding is hardly a solution.
Trudi Ray, the deputy chief exectuive of Haven Home Safe, a H2H provider in the Loddon Mallee and Barwon regions, points to one man who had been homeless.
H2H provided a home, but also helped him get his license. He’s now in paid work.
Another woman had been sleeping in her car with her 12-year-old son. She’s now in safe housing and has reconnected with her family. “She says the program saved her life,” says Ray.
Jenny Smith points to research into a Queensland “housing first” program that estimates it saved taxpayers $13,100 per participant annually, by reducing costs on other public services.
“These are the people that are in our emergency departments, our psych beds, general medical beds and our prisons,” says Smith. “They haven’t had the support that they needed and they end up on the treadmill they’ve been on before.”
Darren Smith says that “treadmill” experience is common among Aboriginal rough sleepers.
“A lot of Aboriginal people are circulated through the homelessness services without actually getting housed,” he says.
A Victorian government spokesperson said on Friday evening: “We have identified additional funding to ensure that the program can continue support and head-leases, where required, for existing participants in 2022-23.”
“This includes 375 Aboriginal Victorians who are currently being supported through the program,” they said. “Additional funding will ensure that people in head leased properties can remain until suitable long-term housing is secured.”
The government insisted it was delivering the “largest single investment in social and affordable housing in Australia’s history though our ‘big housing build’”.
Harrison says she recently finished a six-week art course and has sought treatment for addiction. She hopes programs like H2H are expanded.
“I’ve got people who still come to my house who are homeless,” she says. “I make sure they have a shower, I make sure they’re clean, that they’ve got food.”
