REA : Launch Housing and National Rapid Rehousing Fund | seven years on

Today we hosted a virtual event with our major charity partner Launch Housing, to recognise seven years of partnership. We were fortunate enough to be joined by Ivy, a member of Launch Housing's Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) who shared her experience of homelessness. You can learn more about Ivy's story in her own words, here.

We'd initially planned to mark the occasion of five years of partnership with Launch Housing back in 2020, however the timing coincided with a state of emergency being declared, and just before our first COVID lock down. Needless to say, our event was postponed.

COVID presented everyone with uncertainty, but for the 116,000 people who are homeless in Australia each night, it was an entirely different proposition. Of this group, 7% were estimated to be rough sleepers - so that means literally without a roof over their head, whereas most of the others classified as homeless were sleeping in severely crowded dwellings or supported accommodation for the homeless. Exactly the conditions we were being told we needed to avoid.

COVID spread through the community of people who are homeless relentlessly. The advice we had been given around how to protect ourselves was not as simple for people who are homeless. Social distancing in crowded or supported accommodation is basically not possible; hand sanitizer costs money which could otherwise have gone towards food; clean water and soap is not as easily accessible.

In Melbourne and many other capital cities around Australia, people who were living on the street were offered funded accommodation to relocate to a hotel during the peak of the lockdowns. This as it turned out, was a silver lining of the lockdown. There is now a program running which Launch Housing is driving, called 'From Homelessness to a Home' program, which is seeing the people who were relocated from the street to the hotel, from the hotel to their own home - with additional support to make that transition.

While the 'From Homelessness to a Home' program is relatively new, our National Rapid Rehousing Fund has been providing support to people during the most vulnerable stages of their lives for more than seven years now. The concept of 'Rapid Rehousing' is designed to prevent people from entering the cycle of homelessness. If you can help someone from becoming homeless, their prospects are significantly better than once they have become homeless.

The National Rapid Rehousing Fund is distributed to people in need by Launch Housing and partner agencies in each state and territory of Australia. Since launching in February 2015, the fund has provided financial assistance to 5,186 individuals across 1,852 households, including 2,937 children.

The money has helped purchase essential whitegoods and furniture, to pay rent in advance, rent in arrears and bonds. It has helped pay for removal costs, storage, safety upgrades, petrol and debt relief. Importantly, the money is there and ready to be distributed without the red tape.

The work Launch Housing and its partner agencies undertake to support the most vulnerable members of our community is hugely important and we are truly humbled to call ourselves a partner. Sadly however, the situation around homelessness in Australia has worsened.

Today, more than 116,000 people in Australia are homeless every night. The fastest growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness is women over the age of 55. The number one cause of homeless is domestic violence. There are more than 155,000 people on the list for social housing and by 2036, it's expected there will be a shortfall of 1,000,000 affordable homes.

There is no silver bullet to solve the problem of homelessness in Australia, but it is a problem that can and must be solved. All levels of government, the private sector and not-for-profits need to work together to ensure the fundamental human need of housing is accessible for everyone in Australia.

If you want to help Launch Housing with the important work they're doing to help people experiencing and at risk of homelessness, visit the Launch Housing website.

Find out more about REA Group's community partnershere.