Royal Commission’s recommendations on housing – a game changer

The Royal Commission’s housing recommendations have been described as a game changer.

Launch Housing, Melbourne’s largest independent provider of homelessness services, welcomed the recommendations from the Royal Commission into family violence on housing support and assistance.

Tony Keenan, CEO of Launch Housing said the recommendations show the Royal Commission has carefully considered the evidence presented and come up with solutions that will help women and children get rehoused quickly and safely.

“We welcome the focus of the Royal Commission on keeping women and kids safely housed in their own home. That is always the best option. In those circumstances where we can’t do this, we know that getting women and kids rehoused safely as quickly as possible in their own community will cause the least harm,” said Keenan.

“The recommendation to establish the family violence flexible support packages mean we can help women and kids to move quickly into safe and appropriate housing, rather than the current situation where families can get moved three or four times. These recommendations recognise that the quickest way to get families rehoused is through the private rental market.

“Our aim has to be to get the family safely housed and to minimise the harm caused. At the moment the current system can actually make things worse for families.”

Keenan said that Launch Housing presented evidence to the Royal Commission that showed that almost 70 per cent of their clients had experienced family violence and that of these people, 68 per cent reported that the family violence was the main reason for their homelessness occurring.

“For many years we have seen successive governments allow the quick and easy option of hiding victims of family violence away in motels or horrible rooming houses,” said Keenan.

“Our frontline staff are daily faced with the untenable choice – do they let a family sleep in their car, return to a violent situation at home or accommodate them in a dodgy rooming house?”

Launch Housing is a Melbourne based, secular and independent community agency formed in July 2015 by a merger between Hanover Welfare Services and HomeGround Services.