Reducing street sleeping – the Together Home program

December 15, 2020

During COVID-19 there were over 1,200 people street sleeping across NSW. As part of the Premiers promise to reduce street sleeping by half by 2025, a $36.1 million funding package was announced by the Department of Communities & Justice (DCJ) to fund community housing and support providers to make available 400 homes and support packages for clients who have a chronic history of experiencing homelessness across NSW.

As part of this package our Northern Sydney Specialist Homeless Services team tendered successfully to partner with Link Community Housing, providing 12 homes and support packages for clients who have experienced chronic homelessness in the Hornsby, Kur-ing-Gai, Ryde and Hunters Hill areas.

The model of practice is based on the world-renowned Housing First Program, which prescribes safe and permanent housing as the first priority for people experiencing homelessness. Once housing is secured, a multi-disciplinary team of support workers can address complex needs through services like drug and alcohol counselling, or mental health treatment, which is where CatholicCare’s Together Home team will come in.

The Together Home team, who will join our existing Northern Sydney Specialist Homeless Services team, will deliver in-home intensive therapeutic supports including casework, skills training and a range of wellness and recovery services – with the overall aim of providing long-term housing sustainability. The service will play a key role in assisting participants to re-integrate back into community, supporting them to access essential services such as mental health and NDIS.

Within 6 weeks of receiving the funding – Link Housing and CatholicCare have already supported all 12 participants into their new homes and out of temporary motel accommodation.

For more information about our Housing & Homelessness services click here, call (02) 9481 2600 if you are located in Sydney or (02) 4356 2600 if you’re on the Central Coast. You can also email us at info@catholiccaredbb.org.au for more information.