Exclusive: The number of people sleeping rough in Sydney has nearly halved since 2017, which the NSW government is partly attributing to two new programs | HatAlexander
For Andrew Stevens, that crisis was a knife attack at a homeless shelter that nearly took his life, and convinced him to kick his heroin habit and find stable housing. For homeless people more generally, the crisis was the pandemic, which gave the NSW government the impetus to find accommodation for every rough sleeper and an opportunity to ensure they did not return to the street.
Homelessness started trending downwards after the introduction of the Supported Transition and Engagement Program [STEP] in 2018, which rapidly rehouses people experiencing homelessness and provides services such as drug and alcohol counselling, primary healthcare and crisis support. In February 2017, the City of Sydney’s biannual street count tallied 433 rough sleepers. That figure had reduced to 225 by February this year.
Bridge Housing chief executive Rebecca Pinkstone said tenants often had mental health or addiction issues and needed the predictability of long-term accommodation to turn their lives around.The number of people sleeping rough dived again over the pandemic, when the government protected the state’s homeless during lockdown periods by placing them in hotels and motels, where they enjoyed facilities not usually available in crisis accommodation.
“The temptation was always drugs,” he said. “But what stopped me was I have a desire for other things in life, more normal things. I can relax in my own place. I don’t have to sleep with one eye open.”
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