Public housing system ‘completely blocked’, Shelter SA warns
HOMELESS children and families are being sheltered in motels and hotels as crisis accommodation services struggle to deal with a “completely blocked” system.
ONE hundred homeless children and their parents are being placed in motels each night across Adelaide’s northern suburbs, according to Shelter SA, which warns of a public housing system on the verge of breakdown and worsening each day.
SA Shelter executive director Dr Alice Clark told the Sunday Mail the persistent under supply of crisis accommodation, coupled with a loss of long term public housing, meant more people were being housed in motels and hotels or sleeping rough.
“Every night — and this is just in the north — there are 30 families placed in motels for emergency accommodation and with those 30 families are 100 children,” Dr Clark said.
“There are families who are staying there for months at a time.
“Anyone with children will know that you can’t look after children properly in a motel — you can’t cook for them and there is nowhere to play.”
In a recent submission to the Select Committee on Poverty in South Australia, Dr Clark said: “The workers that we speak with from the social housing and homeless sectors describe a system that is completely blocked.
“It’s getting worse and worse every day.”
The South Australian Housing Association was unable to provide the Sunday Mail with the number of South Australians currently staying in hotels and motels due to a lack of crisis accommodation.
A SAHA spokesman said there were 92 crisis accommodation places available across SA and if none were free, then hotels and motels were used.
The lack of emergency accommodation in northern Adelaide comes as 633 of the state’s 34,616 public housing properties were vacant and ready for tenants last month.
SAHA says this is due to low demand areas, minor maintenance, modifications and new tenants not ready to move in.
“The thought of one suitable house being empty when there is a family who needs it is ridiculous,” said Dr Clark.
Uniting Communities manager of advocacy Mark Henley said there were six 24/7 shelters — often at capacity — outside Greater Adelaide and no family shelters anywhere in the state.
Mr Henley said 25,000 calls were made to the Homelessness Gateway Service in 2017/18 — slightly up from the previous year.
The Service linked 5000 people, with up to 15,000 accompanying children, to emergency accommodation and/or refer them to specialist homelessness services.
Mr Henley said housing affordability was the main reason people were contacting the gateway service.
“The public housing system is not going to be fixed overnight,” Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink said.
She said the Liberal Government would develop a new Housing and Homelessness Strategy and has established the SAHA “to hit the reset button on a broken system”.
The SAHA is working with specialist homelessness stakeholders to determine a better response to accessing emergency accommodation.
A special report into homelessness in SA will be published in the Sunday Mail next week.
For assistance contact the Homelessness Gateway Service on 1800 003 308, the Youth Gateway (15-25) on 1800 807 364, and the Domestic Violence and Aboriginal Family Violence Gateway 1800 800 098.