National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness cont… on the problem of homelessness tended to be broader than NGO’s perspectives those of some staff of Agencies and they noted that in many cases clients needed services to address a range of issues that affected them, “wrap around” some of which may be root causes of homelessness, while Agencies were focused on placing people into housing irrespective of wider issues that might exist. NGOs reported that they found this situation particularly challenging as they might find themselves caught between a need to address issues that may affect a client personally and expectations that people would be placed Agencies’ in to some type of accommodation expeditiously. The NGOs reiterated their strong belief in the value of early intervention models as offering the most effective approach to homelessness and which they consider to be more cost effective than rehabilitation. A challenge presented by some of the initiatives under the NPAH has been the limited ability by NGOs to receive referrals for programs from elsewhere other than Territory Housing. The NGOs indicated that they would like to see more flexibility in program delivery and design so that they would be better able to address underlying issues, enabling people to exit programs at earlier stages with the probability of better outcomes being achieved. The challenges of providing case management and tenancy management services to the same client(s) was seen as an issue, particularly in circumstances where Territory Housing was the property owner and lessor. It was submitted that Territory Housing may sometimes request information which an NGO was prevented from providing under privacy laws. This information would not normally be available to a landlord in a private rental situation. A theme that ran through the discussions with NGOs was that they were subject to when it came to operational matters. It was submitted “micromanagement” that the Territory Housing management model was imposed upon the NGOs with explicit statements to the effect that a failure to adhere could result in withdrawn funding.
National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness cont… NGO’s perspectives on the problem of homelessness tended to be broader than those of some staff of Agencies and they noted that in many cases clients needed “wrap around” services to address a range of issues that affected them, some of which may be root causes of homelessness, while Agencies were focused on placing people into housing irrespective of wider issues that might exist. NGOs reported that they found this situation particularly challenging as they might find themselves caught between a need to address issues that may affect a client personally and Agencies’ expectations that people would be placed in to some type of accommodation expeditiously. The NGOs reiterated their strong belief in the value of early intervention models as offering the most effective approach to homelessness and which they consider to be more cost effective than rehabilitation. A challenge presented by some of the initiatives under the NPAH has been the limited ability by NGOs to receive referrals for programs from elsewhere other than Territory Housing. The NGOs indicated that they would like to see more flexibility in program delivery and design so that they would be better able to address underlying issues, enabling people to exit programs at earlier stages with the probability of better outcomes being achieved. The challenges of providing case management and tenancy management services to the same client(s) was seen as an issue, particularly in circumstances where Territory Housing was the property owner and lessor. It was submitted that Territory Housing may sometimes request information which an NGO was prevented from providing under privacy laws. This information would not normally be available to a landlord in a private rental situation. A theme that ran through the discussions with NGOs was that they were subject to “micromanagement” when it came to operational matters. It was submitted that the Territory Housing management model was imposed upon the NGOs with explicit statements to the effect that a failure to adhere could result in withdrawn funding.