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4. HOMELESSNESS AS DEFINED IN THE SUPPORTED ACCOMMODATION AND ASSISTANCE PROGRAM [SAAP]The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) was established in 1985 to consolidate a number of Commonwealth, State and Territory government programs assisting people who are homeless. The program is governed by Commonwealth legislation, the Supported Accommodation Assistance Act 1994, and through five-year funding agreements between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories. Under the Supported Accommodation Assistance Act 1994, a person is defined as ‘homeless’ if
(and only if) he or she has inadequate access to safe or secure housing (4(1)) Inadequate
access to safe and secure housing is, in turn, defined as housing which: §
damages,
or is likely to damage, the person’s health;
or §
threatens
the person’s safety; or §
marginalises
the person through failing to provide access to adequate personal amenities or
the economic and social supports that a home normally affords; or §
places the person in circumstances that
threaten or adversely affect the adequacy, safety, security or affordability of
that housing. SAAP-funded accommodation and support services are provided by community-based welfare organisations and a small number of local government authorities. In 1996/97, $227 million was allocated under the program to 1,183 agencies. Over this period, it is estimated that some 100,000 people received assistance from SAAP- funded agencies. The SAAP Act refers to both homeless and ‘at risk’, and applies a broad definition which can be regarded as establishing a realistic mandate for the program, rather than a definition of who is homeless. Overall some 13% (about 12,000 over a year) of SAAP clients identified themselves as Indigenous Australians while representing only 2% (about 365,000) of the national population. While 37% of SAAP clients were indigenous in the Northern Territory, they represent about one quarter (24%) of the general population. In Victoria, about 4% of SAAP clients come from Indigenous backgrounds, but the Indigenous population is only 0.005% of the Victorian population. Measured in terms of the number of Indigenous people using SAAP services per 10,000 of the population over the age of 10 years, the rate of homelessness in Victoria (67 homeless clients per 10,000) is the third highest in Australia, higher than NSW (44), Queensland (49), Western Australia (49), South Australia (56) and the ACT (65), and exceeded only by the Northern Territory (156) and Tasmania (86). About 1100 Indigenous people use SAAP services annually out of a population of about 25,000, or between 4 and 5 per cent, nearly twice the national average rate. This is an unexpected result, which has evidently been overlooked, perhaps because more prominent Indigenous communities in other parts of Australia are seen more often as where the ‘problem’ is. A number of informants felt that homelessness is an increasing problem in Victoria. Several reasons were cited: Hostel occupancy rates have skyrocketed and people aren’t making transitions through hostels to rental accommodations because of all the restrictions available. Some people aren’t renting because they’re not confident enough to go down there and they won’t push them out the door because it’ll affect occupancy rates down the road. Young women with kids have gone out and haven’t been able to afford all the rent and come back to us. The problems of young people in families where they are not receiving appropriate care was also offered as a reason for increasing homelessness amongst Indigenous young people. The extended family potentially provides support and care but if adults in that family are having serious problems, abusing alcohol or drugs or in a spiral of domestic violence, then young Indigenous people are forced to leave and they become homeless.
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