Enabling Local Communities: Homelessness in Cairns
Preliminary site analysis
March 2016
About QCOSS
The Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) is the state-wide peak body representing the interests of individuals experiencing or at risk of experiencing poverty and disadvantage, and organisations working in the social and community service sector.
For more than 50 years, QCOSS has been a leading force for social change to build social and economic wellbeing for all. With members across the state, QCOSS supports a strong community service sector.
QCOSS, together with our members continues to play a crucial lobbying and advocacy role in a broad number of areas including:
· sector capacity building and support
· homelessness and housing issues
· early intervention and prevention
· cost of living pressures including low income energy concessions and improved consumer protections in the electricity, gas and water markets
· energy efficiency support for culturally and linguistically diverse people
· early childhood support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse peoples.
QCOSS is part of the national network of Councils of Social Service lending support and gaining essential insight to national and other state issues.
QCOSS is supported by the vice-regal patronage of His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Governor of Queensland.
Lend your voice and your organisation’s voice to this vision by joining QCOSS. To join visit the QCOSS website (www.QCOSS.org.au).
ISBN – 978-1-876025-84-7
© 2016 Queensland Council of Social Service Ltd. This publication is copyright. Non-profit groups have permission to reproduce part of this book as long as the original meaning is retained and proper credit is given to the Queensland Council of Social Service. All other persons and organisations wanting to reproduce material from this book should obtain permission from the publishers.
Contents
Introduction 4
Methodology 4
About Cairns and its residents 5
The homeless population in Cairns 7
Local processes and practices 8
Key stakeholders and local leaders 10
Service gaps and barriers 11
Conclusion 14
Introduction
The Enabling Local Communities (ELC) project seeks to support and better enable two communities – Ipswich and Cairns – to strengthen local leadership, processes and practices in the area of housing and homelessness to improve service and sector integration. A proposal about how housing and homelessness services in these locations could be better delivered to achieve the best possible outcome for individual will also be developed.
The ELC project will build on data gathered through the Home for Good Registry Weeks, which captured the needs of homeless people in Cairns and Ipswich, and the perspectives and stories of people who live and work in those communities. Both data and story will be used to provide evidence of what works and where fresh responses may be required. Sound ideas will be tested and embedded in communities, and local action and leadership will be supported.
This site analysis provides context for the Cairns element of the ELC project. It summarises the local service system, and identifies leaders and stakeholders, as well as existing integration and coordination mechanisms, and service gaps.
Methodology
The data for this report was gathered through a desk analysis to find existing information on the Cairns community and housing and homelessness initiatives underway, along with a range of consultation processes, including:
· attendance at local housing and homelessness networks
· face-to-face interviews with service providers and community members
· online surveys with service providers.
Interviews with key personnel from both government and non-government agencies (within the housing and homelessness sector as well as broader community services) were designed to elicit first-hand information about the experiences of service integration, what is working well and any potential barriers.
Online survey questions were co-designed with members from the Cairns Housing and Homeless Network to supplement the information from the interview process.
The contracted time frame to complete this site analysis in a five-week period presented some difficulties in terms of accessing a number of key respondents.
This difficulty was partly overcome by encouraging people within local networks to use the online survey if they did not have time to participate in a face-to-face interview.
In the Cairns region, twenty-one government and non-government service providers participated in the interviews while a further 49 organisations completed an online survey.
In addition, Leximancer (a content analysis tool) was used to analyse the surveys, interview transcripts, individual stories and reports. Leximancer identified high level concepts and key ideas that will be used to theme issues and provide data for use in the sense-making process with both communities in the next phase of the project.
About Cairns and its residents
The Cairns Regional Council Area is located in Far North Queensland, approximately 350 kilometres north of Townsville and 1,700 kilometres north of Brisbane. The region sits on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula and is bordered by the Regional Councils of Cassowary Coast in the South, the Tablelands and Mareeba in the West and Douglas Shire Council in the North. Cairns contains a number of sub-regional communities such as the Northern Beaches, Freshwater and Redlynch Valleys, Gordonvale/Goldsborough and the rural south. Fitzroy and Green offshore islands are also features of the regional profile (profile.id.com.au/cairns/home). Bordering the regional in the East is the Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council which is approximately 60km by road from Cairns CBD.
While this project covers the inner area of Cairns, (from Ellis Beach in the North to Edmonton in the South), discrete communities from the Tablelands and Cape York Peninsula as well as Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council will come to Cairns as the main administrative hub in the region, to access a range of medical, health and wellbeing services, housing and homelessness services, education and training opportunities, income support and employment.
It is worth nothing here that while Cairns is a popular tourist destination and the gateway to all the tropical north has to offer (including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics rainforest), it is also part of a significant Indigenous regional area (Cairns/Atherton). Cairns also has one of the highest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in Australian who live in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country.
From 2008 to 2014 the Cairns Regional Council area included the Douglas Shire Council following a state government to LGA amalgamation process. In 2013 Douglas Shire residents voted in favour of de-amalgamation from the Cairns Regional Council, which took effect on 1 January 2014.
Population figures during the amalgamation years are therefore higher than the new estimated resident population for Cairns from 2014 onwards. Furthermore, the most recent data on population characteristics are derived from the 2011 ABS Census, which for the Cairns region, included the Douglas Shire Council area at the time of the census. Population data cited in this section draws on both the 2011 figures (prior to de-amalgamation) and current estimated numbers (post de-amalgamation) and are subsequently marked (1) and (2) respectively.
The estimated resident population (ERP) for Cairns as at 30 June 2014(2) is 158,985 with an average annual growth rate of 2.8 per cent during the last 10 years. Unemployment in Cairns is 7.4 per cent with youth unemployment at 20.5 per cent compared with Queensland at 5.9 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively. Families with children account for 38.3 per cent of the total population and of these, just under one third (31 per cent) are one parent families. In 2011, Cairns was rated at 980.6 on the SEIFA Index of Disadvantage. Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) ranks areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. A higher score on SEIFA (i.e. above 1,000) indicates a lower level of disadvantage in an area, while a relatively low score shows a higher level of disadvantage. In comparison, Logan City scores 970.9 on SEIFA, Ipswich 966.3 while Brisbane’s rating is 1047.7.
Cairns has a high level of interstate and internal migration with 44 per cent of the population having moved once in the five years from 2006 to 2011. Cairns residents moving internally within the region account for 21 per cent of all those who had moved while 17 per cent had moved from another part of Queensland or Australia. Internal migration trends indicate that a high proportion of people moving into Cairns came from the LGAs of Cassowary Coast, Torres, Yarrabah and Cook with people also moving to Cairns from Darwin and Mount Isa.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 9.3 per cent of the Cairns’ population and 14.3 per cent of the total population of Far North Queensland(2). In comparison, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people account for 2.5 per cent of the Australian population and 3.6 per cent of Queensland’s population, with the majority (73 per cent) living outside of Brisbane.
The homeless population in Cairns
The 2011 ABS Census of Population and Housing: Estimating the Homeless data provides an overview of homelessness in Cairns. There were 3,827 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in the region including:
· 343 sleeping rough sleep or in improvised dwellings
· 353 in supported accommodation
· 290 staying with other households temporarily
· 468 staying in boarding houses
· 363 marginally houses in caravan parks
· 963 in severely crowded dwellings.
Specific details of the characteristics of people experiencing homelessness in the Cairns region is provided in the attached report which draws on a sample of 405 individuals and families who participated in the Home for Good Registry Week project.
Figure 1: People experiencing homelessness or in marginal housing Cairns 2011
Source: ABS 2049.0 Census of Population and Housing: Estimating Homelessness, 2011
Local processes and practices
There are a number of ‘coordinating’ bodies and networks operational in the Cairns region.
Cairns Alliance of Social Services
The Cairns Alliance of Social Services (CASS) is a major representative body of social services in the region. CASS membership comprises a broad range of organisations from across a number of key sectors and service types including: mental health, family and domestic violence, drug and alcohol, disability, primary health, education and training, housing and homelessness, legal, family and children, income support, Indigenous services and government. Its purpose is to:
1. Be a voice for social change
2. Develop our skill base to better serve our community
3. Enhance our cooperative capacity
A key strategy of the network is its ability to bring together organisational decision makers as members in order to facilitate timely decisions on important issues and integrated efforts.
Cairns Housing and Homelessness Network
The Cairns Housing and Homelessness Network (CHHN) is another long running alliance that has delivered a number of integrated efforts to the region. Membership is primarily comprised of social housing and specialist homelessness services but may also include representatives from Centrelink, youth and family services, family violence services and government.
The purpose of the network is to ‘achieve housing justice for all people in Cairns’ through a range of activities and strategies including: engaging effectively with funding bodies and relevant key stakeholder within, as well as external to, the homelessness sector; identifying services gaps, barriers and emerging issues; and generating potential solutions to local issues.
Cairns Homelessness Taskforce
The Cairns Homelessness Taskforce (also known as the Cairns Homelessness Project Group) is part of the Regional Managers’ Coordination Networks (Department of Housing and Public Works) and exists to:
Support the coordination and improvement of services to people in public places who are homeless or displaced and intoxicated…and…Fosters a cooperative and coordinated approach to improve the wellbeing of individuals and communities associated with homeless.
The Taskforce receives regular written and verbal reports from the Cairns Assertive and Integrated Street-based Outreach program, the Case Coordination Working Group (CCWG) and Douglas House (Mission Australia) as well as updates from local networks and alliances. Membership includes senior managers/CEOs from: housing and homelessness services, Indigenous services, health, government, justice and corrections, and police.
Cairns Homelessness Services Hub
The purpose of the Cairns Homelessness Services Hub is to provide easy access to a wide range of services for people experiencing homelessness or people at imminent risk of homelessness in Cairns. There is a strong focus on supporting people who have traditionally experienced difficulties accessing the homelessness service system, including those who may be sleeping rough and those with complex needs.
The hub facilitates access for homeless people to a wide range of housing and support services in Cairns including: access to information, referral and advocacy, referral to housing and accommodation options and crisis support.
Case Coordination Working Group
The Case Coordination Working Group (CCWG) is a collaborative multi-agency case management process supporting chronically homeless rough sleepers to achieve independent and sustainable housing. The framework for practice is underpinned by a “Housing First” model which assumes housing is a ‘human right’ and aims to ensure the provision of housing to homeless people and apply appropriate ‘wrap around support’ to assist them to maintain independent accommodation. The group meets every two weeks to develop case plans and review progress to ensure actions are implemented and goals are met. Participants of the working group currently include:
· Anglicare NQ
· Mission Australia
· Ozcare
· Department of Housing and Public Works (DHPW)
· Queensland Health
· Salvation Army
· Women’s Centre
· Queensland Drug & Alcohol Council (QDAC)
· Department of Human Services – Centrelink
· Shelter Housing Action Cairns (SHAC)
· Youthlink
· Omega Health
· Specialist Disability Services Assessment and Outreach Team (SDSAOT)
· Synapse
· Lotus Glen Correctional Centre – Transitions
Other networks and processes