Rough sleeping reduced by 20 percent locally

The number of people sleeping rough on the Northern Beaches has dropped by 20 per cent in the last year (February 2020 – February 2021).

The Homelessness Street Count, conducted by the Northern Beaches Housing and Homelessness Interagency which Council is part of, identified 57 rough sleepers, down from 71 the year before.

While this is good news, no person should have to sleep rough. People living on the streets deserve to be treated with respect and receive opportunities for support.

Council has been working hard in partnership with NSW Government and key housing and homelessness services; Community Northern Beaches, Mission Australia and Bridge Housing, since we hosted the first Northern Beaches Housing and Homelessness Forum in August 2019.

Since then Council has continued to collaborate with these partners to establish the Northern Beaches Homelessness Interagency, the Northern Beaches Case Coordination Group and conducted two Homelessness Street Counts.

In March 2020 the NSW Government announced an additional $34 million to prevent and respond to homelessness due to COVID-19.

Since then, the Northern Beaches Homelessness Case Coordination Group has housed 43 people into social housing, private rental and support accommodation. This has been a significant achievement and a strong indication of the success of the additional funding and the effective coordination of local housing services.

Through this work, we hope to play our part in the NSW Government’s objective to “Reduce street homelessness across NSW by 50 per cent by 2025.”

You can find more information about local housing and homelessness services here.