Crisis to deepen as COVID protections phase out : report

A new university report has warned the situation is about to get a lot worse, with many of the temporary income and eviction protections due to be phased out.

The area has been known as the 'tent city' for years. Photo by Janine Watson.

A new report has echoed the concerns being felt on the Coffs Coast about the escalating homeless crisis.

And, it warns, the situation is about to get a lot worse with lots of the temporary income and eviction protections due to be phased out as we emerge from the worst of the COVID-10 pandemic.

The erection of a perimeter fence around the Coffs Harbour Community Village - or safety wall as Coffs Harbour City Council prefers to call it - has brought the issue to the fore in recent weeks.

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Neighbouring Councils like Bellingen Shire are also grappling with the growing crisis.

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The new report - COVID-19: Rental Housing and Homelessness Impacts - shows the gains made on reducing homelessness during the pandemic last year are slipping away.

Workers install the front gate of the new perimeter fence. Photo: Janine Watson

It is part of the UNSW Sydney and Australian Council of Social Service’s Poverty and Inequality research partnership and it the first of two planned reports from an ongoing investigation.

Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie, says that during the pandemic, governments did the right thing by increasing income support payments, putting in place eviction moratoriums and providing emergency housing to prevent a sudden surge in homelessness.

But now with emergency tenancy protection and income support being cut back, tens of thousands of people will be facing huge deferred rental debts – putting us at great risk of a worsening homelessness crisis.

Adrian Pisarski, CEO of National Shelter, which also partnered on the report, said State governments acted quickly and on an extraordinary scale to provide emergency accommodation for people who were homeless early in the pandemic.

“But less than a third of those assisted were later transitioned into longer-term affordable housing,” Mr Pisarski said.

Dr Goldie believes the Federal Government in particular have the power to prevent this worsening homelessness crisis – to build on the work during the pandemic and address homelessness in Australia.

Homeless people camp behind the village and use the various facilities at the Community Village and the newly installed fence (inset).

“At the Federal level, the Government can put in place a permanent and adequate level of income support and bolster state social housing construction. A new push to invest in social housing can begin to make good a decade of neglect. It can provide long-term affordable living solutions so that people have a base from which to rebuild their lives, at the same time generating tens of thousands of jobs, supporting our economic recovery from the pandemic.”

Everybody’s Home - a national campaign to end homelessness - released a report in December last year which found government investment of $7.7 billion in social housing, including federal funding complemented by funds from the states and territories, would make a huge dent in homelessness, boost the post-pandemic economy by $18.2 billion and create 18,000 jobs a year over four years.