During May the National Housing and Homelessness Ministerial Council met. This follows a meeting in March attended by NSW Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson. Ahead of the meeting, Shelter NSW joined other Shelter organisations from around Australia in writing to the Ministerial Council expressing our deep disappointment regarding the proposed National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness. Specifically, we are concerned that there is no significant enhancement to the funding envelope of the agreement, and that the doubling of the funding comes at the expense of other areas of the agreement. Every day across Australia, homelessness services are forced to turn away nearly 300 people, 80% of whom are women and children. We can’t let this continue.

In a housing and homelessness crisis we need bold action to address the scale of the need confronting the sector, and most importantly the people who are living the experience every day. This new agreement does not achieve that.

National Shelter CEO Emma Greenhalgh, extract from our joint letter.