Assertive outreach is a vital component of the specialist homelessness sector’s (SHS) support for people sleeping rough. Outreach workers go out into the community, meeting people where they are at and taking time over weeks and months to build trusting relationships and connect them with the SHS. The goal of this work is to help rough sleepers through the process of finding a home, and provide them with the supportive services they need in the meantime.
In Victoria, the state government funds assertive outreach in nine regions, established through the 2018 Victorian Rough Sleeper Action Plan (RSAP). In the absence of government-funded programs in other areas, there are also assertive outreach programs funded by local government, philanthropy, or from organisational reserves.
CHP undertook this assertive outreach mapping report to understand where assertive outreach services are currently provided in Victoria, how much there is, who misses out, and what additional capacity is needed to meet the scale of the challenge.
Our survey estimates that Victoria currently has a total equivalent of 40.5 full time workers to support a rough sleeper population that exceeds 11,000 people. This equates to 1 worker for, conservatively, every 272 rough sleepers.
Of these, 25.9 FTE are workers are in programs funded by the State Government, with the remaining 14.6 FTE in locally funded programs. These workers are servicing 28 Victorian LGAs. This leaves 55 LGAs with no assertive outreach at all.
We estimate that to reach all rough sleepers across Victoria, the assertive outreach workforce needs to expand to at least 177 full-time workers.
Based on our analysis of existing programs and demand, we recommend the Victorian Government:
1. Expand assertive outreach programs to fund at least 177 workers across the state to meet overall need by:
- Expanding existing Victorian Government-funded programs
- Resourcing existing community-funded programs and expanding them
- Establishing new programs across the state
2. Provide long-term funding for all assertive outreach programs to ensure staff consistency, address turnover, and support skill development, and enable long-term engagement with rough sleepers
3. Ensure assertive outreach programs have priority Housing First access to social housing
4. Build more social housing, with dedicated places for people sleeping rough
5. Pilot assertive outreach programs for young people sleeping rough