In March 2024, the City of Merri-bek, in partnership with VincentCare Victoria with support from Launch Housing, proudly launched Merri-bek Zero. This initiative takes a place-based collective impact approach to significantly reduce rough sleeping within the local community by connecting directly with individuals and adding them onto the local ‘By Name List’ (BNL). This allows for a tailored, client-centred service response.

Collaboration at the core

Merri-bek Zero is spearheaded by VincentCare and the Merri-bek Council, with essential support from local service organisations including Merri Outreach Support Service, Hope Street Youth Refuge, Bolton Clark HPP, and Launch Housing. These partnerships enable effective service coordination essential for the project’s growth and success.

Project goals

The goal of Merri-bek Zero is to achieve Functional Zero homelessness. This is when the number of people entering and experiencing rough sleeping homelessness within a month is less than the average monthly placement rate into long-term housing, or three. Once achieved it must be sustained and any future experiences of rough sleeping homelessness are brief, rare and once-off.

How are we going?

Homelessness is ended when people move into safe, sustainable, long-term housing of their choice. This includes public or community housing or private rental that meets an acceptable minimum standard of a self-contained dwelling with its own kitchen and bathroom facilities. The person must have security of tenure evidenced by a signed tenancy agreement. Long-term housing includes aged care and may include long-term special residential services.

Sleeping rough and actively homeless

People are added onto the BNL when we meet them and they are sleeping rough. This means that they are staying in an unsheltered living situation, a car, or abandoned building or dwelling unfit for human habitation (eg a ‘squat’). Once added they become ‘active’ on the BNL. This chart shows the ‘active’ number since the project started. By showing the number of people who remain sleeping rough we can also see people connected to the project gradually move into different living situations in the figure further below. If the slope of the active number in the chart below increases, the number of people experiencing rough sleeping and staying homeless is greater than our capacity to house them.

Actively homeless and changes in living situations

Most people prefer not to sleep rough. Homelessness experiences are usually characterised by movement between different living situations as people’s circumstances change. The figure below shows this change over time as people connect to the network of services in the project. It shows that some people move into safer forms of sheltered emergency accommodation such as hotels, motels or specialist crisis accommodations, or other forms of temporary housing including Transitional housing (THM) or Head Lease housing.

They also move into community rooming houses or other forms  of tenure but remain homelessness. These are not final housing outcomes so people remain ‘active’ even though their living situations have improved. People may live in these for several years before an offer of social housing is finally made.

The most important reason people stay on the list and don't move into safe and secure homes is that there simply aren't enough homes in Victoria that people on low incomes can afford. If 10 homes are available and 50 people need homes, 40 people are going to remain without a home, no matter how hard everyone tries to house them. Based on current estimates,in agreement with Council to Homeless Persons, we know that Victoria needs to build at least 6,000 homes every year for the next decade to meet current and expected future demand.

Partners

Merri-bek Zero is being delivered in partnership with:

• Bolton Clark Homeless Persons Program
• Hope Street Youth Refuge
• Juno
• Merri Outreach Support Service
• Merri-bek Council
• Ngwala Willumbong
• North West Community Mental Health
• Northern Community Legal Services
• Northern Health
• The Salvation Army
• Uniting Vic Tas
• VACCA
• VincentCare Victoria

• Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH)
• Homes Victoria
• Department of Justice and Community Safety (DoJ)

• Andrew McDougall & Frances Ilyine Foundation  
• Ballarat Foundation
• Collier Charitable Trust
• Creswick Woolen Mills (300 Blankets)
• Erdi Foundation
• Percy Baxter Charitable Trust 
• The Blueshore Charitable Trust 
• The Bowden Marstan Foundation 
• The Jack Brockoff Foundation
• William Angliss Charitable Fund
• Many generous individual donors