The Give Where You Live Foundation exists to create a fairer, more equitable community where all people and places thrive. Supporting the community and creating change is central to everything we do. One of our key priorities is supporting people through life crisis, including a focus on homelessness initiatives.
Geelong Zero is part of a growing alliance across Australia seeking to end homlessness by 2025 in our community. The Foundation is proud to be the inaugural funder and partner with Neami National to establish Geelong Zero in our region. The initiatve seeks to work collaboratively across homelessness, emergency relief and community services in the Geelong region to ensure that homelessness when it does occur, is rare, brief and non-recurring.
As the cost of living continues to increase, we are seeing the impact it is having on our most vulnerable community members. The number of people in our community experiencing financial stress is continuing to increase with many individuals and families facing homelessness and food insecurity. Over the last 7 years, greater visibility has shown the number of people experiencing unstable housing, including rough sleeping, couch surfing and supported accommodation, double to over 1500 (ABS Census, 2021). The latest census data shows that approximately 30% of households across the region are experiencing rental stress, however in some areas this is as high as 60%.
The network of homelessness funded services across the Barwon region assisted over 5,600 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and/or family violence in 2021 – 2022. (AIHW, Australian Institute Health & Welfare).
“We know when people don’t have access to safe and secure housing it can significantly impact their ability to find work, as well as affect their health and wellbeing,” Kerry Farrance Head of Impact at the Give Where You Live Foundation, said.
To support homelessness in our region, the Give Where You Live Foundation announced a new strategic
partnership to support the launch of the Geelong Zero Project.
“Thanks to the generosity of the community, the Give Where You Live Foundation is very proud to provide funding to support the Geelong Zero Project. This project will help to understand the number of people in our community who are sleeping rough so that we can reduce homelessness and achieve the Geelong Zero goal of eliminating
rough sleeping by 2025,” Kerry said.
As a key partner, the Give Where You Live Foundation worked to support Neami National and the Geelong Zero
project to start developing a shared ‘By Name’ list of rough sleepers. This list will enable better understanding of the barriers to people accessing support and provide a more coordinated and informed approach to supporting these individuals.
The By Name list has already revealed the average number of years people are sleeping on the streets or in emergency accommodation in Geelong was close to 6 years. Identified concerns of these rough sleepers included chronic health issues, substance abuse and mental health conditions.
“This is one of the fundamental advantages of the Geelong Zero model – gaining the data of those
people experiencing homelessness is fundamental to helping them shift from homelessness to having a home,” Kerry said.