The City of Melbourne endorses plan to tackle homelessness

The City of Melbourne has endorsed a strategy that strives to prevent and end homelessness in Melbourne. 

Within the final Homelessness Strategy 2024-30, which councillors unanimously adopted at the Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting on August 6, the council has vowed to make Melbourne a city where everyone has a home.

The mover of the motion, Greens Cr Dr Olivia Ball, said that homelessness is a regrettable feature of the city “due to decades of underinvestment”.

According to the Cr Dr Ball, the strategy represented only one part of the council’s response to that crisis and that the next step was for the creation of a two-year costed action plan outlining how the strategy would be implemented. 

The council said that through its strategy, it would advocate, partner and deliver initiatives to ensure people who were experiencing homelessness or sleeping rough, would have access to homelessness prevention, support and housing services. 

A data snapshot created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the 2021 Census revealed that within the City of Melbourne, more than 1100 people experienced homelessness. 

Aboriginal people make up five per cent of the city’s homeless population, while young people aged 15 to 25 and women account for 15 and 25 per cent, respectively. The council said its plan would respond to the individual needs of those experiencing homelessness at a disproportionate rate. 

Cr Jamal Hakim said that the strategy was an important reminder that housing was a human right and that the City of Melbourne was committed to doing everything it could to ensure everyone had a roof over their head. 

The council said that solving the complex problems of homelessness and housing shortages required a collaborative effort between all levels of government in Australia, the private sector, housing organisations and the broader community. 

The Victorian Government’s Big Housing Build includes a $5.3 billion investment in more social and affordable housing, aiming to build 800,000 homes across the state over the next decade. 

In collaboration with the state government, the federal government is currently developing a National Homelessness Plan that will set out a shared vision to inform future housing and homelessness policy in Australia.

It has also established the Housing Australia Future Fund and committed to investing $10 billion into affordable and social housing projects. 

With “collaboration” and “partnerships” a key priority of the council’s strategy, the City of Melbourne will work with all tiers of government and relevant stakeholders throughout the implementation process. 

“The strategy must be built on simple but powerful beliefs and strategies and actions that everyone who chooses to be housed should be housed, so that no-one is left behind,” Cr Hakim said. •