Way2Home Assertive Outreach Service
The City of Sydney has been providing funding support to the provision of homeless outreach services since 2000. In 2009, in response to emerging models of best practice internationally and locally, the City and funding partner Housing NSW (HNSW) reconfigured the homeless outreach model as an ‘Assertive Outreach Service’ and invited submissions from the non-government sector to provide the new service.
Way2Home was established in April 2010 and is operated by Neami, a not-government organisation with funding from the City and HNSW. The Commonwealth government contributed funds for the inclusion of a Health Outreach component to the service which is provided by St Vincent’s Hospital in a collaborative partnership with Neami.
Way2Home is made up of two teams:
The Assertive Outreach Team
is comprised of Community Rehabilitation and Support Workers and Peer Support Workers who have lived experience of homelessness. The Outreach Team provides support to people from the point of engagement on the streets and throughout their journey into independent living and provides them with the intensity of support that is needed for them to achieve stability and quality of life for as long as they need that support. The nature of support provided is determined by individualized client goals under a ‘no wrong door’ approach meaning the client determines the conditions under which support will be provided and the goals that underpin that support.
Homeless Health Outreach Team
includes specialists in mental health, drug and alcohol and primary health with linkages to a range of other allied health specialists. The Health Team works collaboratively with the Outreach Team to ensure the coordinated delivery of health services to those who need it.
The primary objective of Way2Home is reduce the number of people sleeping rough in the inner-city by focusing on referring people out of homelessness into independent housing with support to maintain their tenancy and re-engage with community under a ‘Housing First’ approach.
Housing First
Housing First is an initiative that was first developed by ‘Pathways to Housing’ in New York under the guidance of Dr Sam Tsemberis, CEO and founder of Pathways to Housing. The Housing First model has now been adapted in sites across America, Canada, Europe and more recently in Australia. It has been extensively evaluated the results of which are available in many peer reviewed academic articles. Housing First has an impressive record of success in terms of tenancy stability and individual outcomes across health and social indicators especially when compared to other more traditional pathways into housing that require a person be able to demonstrate that they are ‘ready for housing’.
Housing First follows a philosophy that people who wish to enter into independent long term housing should be able to do so without first having to meet pre-requisites such as sobriety or treatment compliance and that client directed goals and individual choice should be the determinant to the way in which support is provided once housing is accessed. Housing is provided first and then the support services that are necessary to help a person to recover and thrive within their own environment are negotiated with that person. The Housing First approach seeks to offer clients greater opportunity for self determination and the opportunity to live without stigma in the communities where they choose to reside.
More Information
For further information contact the Assertive Outreach Team of Way2Home on 1800 505 501.
