Inquiry into Homelessness Legislation
PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic calls for a new Homelessness Act
In a recent submission to the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth (Committee), the PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic (HPLC) has called for the introduction of a new Homelessness Act to protect and promote Australians’ right to adequate housing.
In its submission to the Committee’s Inquiry into Homelessness Legislation, the HPLC has proposed a paradigm shift in Australia's legislative and policy approach to homelessness which would allow the Government to develop and deliver more responsive, efficient, effective and empowering homelessness policy and services.
The HPLC submission called for a new Act to enshrine the right to adequate housing as recognised in international human rights law, and to incorporate other rights-based mechanisms such as core minimum standards for homelessness services, participation models and funding that is linked to individual outcomes.
According to the HPLC’s submission, new legislation protecting the right to adequate housing would:
- emphasise Parliament's commitment to the progressive realisation of the right to adequate housing;
- establish within Government and the wider community the paramount importance of addressing homelessness as part of the Government's wider social inclusion agenda; and
- give practical effect to Australia's existing human rights commitments recognised through the ratification of relevant international treaties.
The Inquiry arose as a result of the recommendations contained in the Government's 2008 White Paper on Homelessness: The Road Home. The Road Home sets out the Federal government’s strategy for reducing homelessness until the year 2020. In The Road Home, the Federal government failed to recognise that addressing homelessness is a matter of ensuring that the human rights of all individuals are adequately protected and promoted. The failure to consider homelessness in terms of human rights means there are large gaps in its response to the problem.
Following the lodging of the HPLC’s submission, HPLC Manager/Principal Lawyer James Farrell was invited to address the Committee in Canberra. The Committee questioned James on the mechanisms that would be required to ensure that an enforceable legislative right to adequate housing could be realised.
The Committee is expected to report to the Minister for Housing before the end of the year, and the HPLC looks forward to the Government delivering on its commitment to ending homelessness, and introducing legislation that will ‘underpin the national response to homelessness, setting standards to deliver the best quality services possible’.