HomeGround Annual Report 2010/11 - HomeGround Services

OPENING DOORS / REFORM IN PROGRESS
a strong
foundation
to build on
Opening Doors
is a major reform
of Victoria’s
homelessness system
introduced in 2006.
Opening Doors
aims to re-orient
services around
the needs of
people accessing
them rather than
expecting people
to navigate a
complex maze
of services in
the midst of
crisis or accept
limited assistance
because they have
approached the
‘wrong’ service
or geographic
location.
It created 17
geographic
catchments across
Victoria so that all
funded services
within each
catchment could
share information
and resources and
work together to
make assistance
available as quickly
as possible.
A statewide
freecall number
was introduced
for the first time
to ensure help was
available 24 hours
a day, seven days
a week.
During business
hours, calls are
automatically
sent to the local
housing service
and after hours
they are answered
by The Salvation
Army’s Crisis
Services team.
A further innovation was the creation
of an electronic resource register for
agencies to advertise available support,
housing and brokerage funds to allow
these to be better utilised based on need
rather than which service a particular
person happens to contact. Previously,
the only way to know what resources
other agencies had available was to make
numerous phone calls.
A common system was also implemented
for the assessment of need. This enables
prioritisation of assistance based on the
time a person has spent waiting and the
match with available support, housing
and/or brokerage resources. This meant
an end to sending people from one
agency to another.
What’s the point?
The service received at first contact
is vital in preventing a housing or
homelessness crisis from getting worse,
working out what sort of assistance
someone requires and working to quickly
facilitate housing stability once more.
Due to the growth of the homelessness
and housing system into a series of
specialist providers, it is often only the
most persistent or lucky who receive
the best responses. For the most
entrenched with the most debilitating
health problems, persistence and running
around is not a viable expectation.
In this regard, the system inadvertently
screened out those who needed help
most. Opening Doors, on the other hand,
requires agencies to do the running
around, rather than the person who is
homeless or in crisis.
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CLIENT FEEDBACK
ON OUR STAFF
RespectFUL, friendly, professional,
patient, understanding, investigative,
responsible, honest, empathETic, courteous,
compassionate, polite, helpful, kind,
excellent, explained my rights, respected
my privacy, always knew what to do.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010 — 2011 27