HOMELESS services in Sydney have been thrown a multimillion-dollar lifeline as the NSW government presses ahead with reforms to halt the "inner-city drift".
THE government had foreshadowed cuts to inner-city areas through its Going Home, Staying Home reforms, which aim to nip homelessness in the bud through a focus on early intervention in suburban, regional and rural areas.
The proposals prompted fears that specialist services, including refuges for women escaping domestic violence, would lose out.Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton now agrees the cuts were too much, too fast.She has restored the $8.6 million in annual funding that was on the chopping block, including $2 million a year for inner-city women's services."I was concerned that the original proposal ran the risk of delivering too much change, too quickly," Ms Upton said on Friday."Let me be clear: the government was never planning to do away with women's specialist services, nor were there plans to have men and women sharing crisis accommodation."However, I have listened to the legitimate concerns of many inner-city providers and the right decision was to restore funding."She said next week's budget would include a record $148 million for NGOs delivering specialist homelessness, up from $135 million this year.It's the first tranche of a $515 million package that will be delivered over three years and will include $70 million in complementary programs.Communities in the Hunter-New England district, the mid-north coast, the Illawarra and Sydney's northern beaches will receive some of the biggest boosts."These reforms are about providing early-intervention services so that there won't be the crisis that we currently have, represented by people coming to the city in search of a safe and secure home," Ms Upton said.A new Service Support Fund will be set up so NGOs that missed out can apply for 18 months of extra assistance."This fund is all about ensuring that these very important reforms do not inadvertently create pockets of need for services previously met," Ms Upton said.The government would stand by the $515 million figure even if the federal government backed away from its National Partnership funding commitments in the next three years, Ms Upton said.The NSW opposition says the funding reprieve is a thin lifeline that comes too late for some organisations."These 60 services that have been told that they will be closing their doors are already doing so," deputy Labor leader Linda Burney told reporters."Many of them have already lost their buildings, lost their computers and lost their infrastructure."They cannot go through another tender process to prove that they're worthwhile ... The actions of Gabrielle Upton and the Baird government have caused this situation where homeless services in NSW are hanging on a thread."She said the changes created more instability for organisations catering to domestic violence victims at a time when demand was rising.Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
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