As Victorians prepare to vote in council elections, we explore the rise of local solutions to homelessness…

By Meg Mundell

In suburban streets across Victoria, the smiling faces of local council candidates are being stapled to front fences. As voters cast their ballots this October, in many neighbourhoods the signs of Victoria’s worsening housing crisis are hard to miss.

“Rough sleeping used to be something you only saw in capital cities and inner-city councils,” says Leanne Mitchell. “Now we’re seeing it everywhere: outer suburbs, big and small towns, rural and regional areas.”

Mitchell, who has spent two decades designing and running local government responses to homelessness, says that while local politicians might not see homelessness as their responsibility, residents often do.

“When people see homelessness in their local community, they expect council to do something,” says Mitchell. “And if the community sees it as your responsibility, you can’t say, ‘That’s out of our hands.’ When it’s happening on your doorstep, it’s impossible to ignore.”

Mitchell has written a guide to help local councils tackle homelessness. Supported by a Churchill Fellowship, Everybody’s Business captures insights from her study tour of the UK, US and Canada.

“All around the world, we’re seeing that homelessness needs a community solution,” says Mitchell.

“Councils are the level of government that’s closest to the community, so they’re ideally placed to bring multiple groups together and coordinate a local response.”

Councils can collect local homelessness data, educate residents, build alliances between local services, and lead collaboration. By enlisting librarians, maternal–child health nurses and other frontline service staff with close community ties, they can also help to prevent homelessness.

“In the UK, Newcastle [council] is training people who have those community connections to ask the right questions, so they can identify when someone might be at risk of homelessness,” says Mitchell.

Photo: Shutterstock

Social housing – an umbrella term for public housing and community housing – makes up only 2.9 per cent of Victoria’s total housing, the lowest ratio nationwide. To solve homelessness, experts agree, we urgently need more of it.

Building social housing is primarily the role of State and Federal Governments, says Mitchell. But councils can use inclusionary zoning to help address the shortfall: “Councils can work with developers to increase the number of social housing units in local building projects.”

Councils can also flex their planning powers more directly. “We need more social and affordable housing, in areas where people want to live,” says Jonathan O’Brien, lead organiser of YIMBY Melbourne. “And councils control the land-use agenda across most of [Victoria]. They can approve or reject developments.”

If local politicians want to tackle homelessness, greenlighting quality social housing in their electorate is a no-brainer. Residents can reinforce this, says O’Brien: “Show up to council meetings and voice your support for social housing!”

More broadly, councils can support “housing abundance”, he argues. “Research shows that housing supply is the biggest predictor of homelessness, so the most powerful thing councils can do is say ‘Yes’ to more housing supply.”

Zoning laws are one obvious tool. “Councils can tweak zoning laws to allow more medium-density housing right across their LGA, instead of limiting it to a handful of main roads,” says O’Brien.

This year, local candidates can also make a public commitment by signing the Coalition for Housing Diversity pledge, a promise to actively support more social housing in their locality, along with homes for key workers. So far, over 350 candidates from 60 council areas across Victoria have signed up.

“If you represent a community, you need to represent everyone. People who are homeless are part of the community too,” says George Hatvani, who runs the Advance to Zero program in Melbourne.

Gathering steam around the world, the Zero movement is a community-based approach to ending homelessness. First off, it targets the most harmful and visible form of homelessness: rough sleeping. The goal is to reach “Functional Zero”: when homelessness a rare, brief and non-recurring event within a community.

Under the Melbourne Zero program, local councils bring communities together in a coordinated response to homelessness. Seven councils have signed up so far.

 “We get all the different layers of council to work together, so everyone is aligned,” explains Hatvani. “The park rangers, parking officers, library staff – they’re the eyes and ears of the community, telling us where people are sleeping rough – so they understand homelessness, and how to respond. The policy people – housing, community development – so they’re thinking about homelessness, too.”

Outreach workers meet with local rough sleepers, learn their names, and add each person’s details to a “By Name list” (special database). “So if someone is sleeping rough in the area, we know what type of housing and support they need,” says Hatvani.

Over five years, participating councils have moved more than 550 people off the street into safe, permanent housing.

“After a person gets housed, it changes how they look and feel,” says Hatvani. “They can take regular showers, they’re not stressed and tired, not keeping one eye open at night to say safe. And it makes a huge difference to their health.”

The plan is to roll out By Name lists across all Melbourne councils, with the goal of ending rough sleeping in the city by 2030. Councils who’d like to learn more can contact Melbourne Zero.

Dr Meg Mundell is a Melbourne-based author, researcher and advocate. Meg is the editor of We Are Here: Stories of Home, Place and Belonging, a collection of true stories by people who’ve experienced homelessness.

Add your voice to the Melbourne Zero campaign – be part of positive change today! We’re making Melbourne a world-leading city in ending homelessness, starting with ending rough sleeping by 2030.