Amid staff shortages and rapid test requirements services say they feel frustrated by lack of government support
tephanie Oatley recalls a day in late December when she needed to get a whole unit of young people experiencing homelessness tested for Covid. “We had a young person who started showing symptoms, and a second young person got an itchy throat,” says Oatley.
Covid-positive clients who were staying in Platform Youth Services crisis accommodation could not be moved to hotels due to their age, according to Oatley.McKernan, the chief executive ofNSW. She notes the government had acted quickly to provide hotel accommodation for the homeless during previous outbreaks.
“The big thing is staff shortages,” says Oatley. “We’d have one staff member that would come down with Covid and then nine staff would get Covid from that one case. The clients would have Covid. We’re a small service of 45 staff, we’ve had 16 key staff get Covid.”Guardian Australia this week reported the findings of a Productivity Commission report that found that, pre-Omicron,.
Hollows says in these lockdown periods, Launch has been able to assist clients in other ways. “Even if they couldn’t go to crisis accommodation, they would still go to other accommodation options, or help them with financial assistance,” he says. “It wasn’t like we weren’t providing any response.” Then there has been the RAT race. McKernan says Homelessness NSW and the sector had first requested access to and use of RATs as a way of supporting clients in August 2021.
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