Housing and Homelessness Services Update – November 2011

• Minister's Message

  Homelessness affects many Queenslanders and is one of the key challenges of our time. National Homeless Persons Week in early August highlighted their plight and the fact that people from all walks of life are homeless for any number of reasons, such as the natural disasters of the summer of 2010-11.

• Social Housing Initiative wins 2011 Premier’s Awards for Excellence

  The Department of Communities’ Nation Building Jobs Plan – Social Housing Initiative was announced as a winner in its category at the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Public Service Delivery ceremony held on 11 October 2011.

• Opening Doors for Queensland’s most vulnerable

  The Queensland Government’s Opening Doors Strategy for Reducing Homelessness 2011 - 2014 sets out how the community as a whole will work together to prevent and permanently end homelessness.

• Brisbane Common Ground on the rise

  Growing taller and prouder everyday, Brisbane Common Ground, the 14-level supportive housing development taking shape at 15 Hope Street, South Brisbane, will be completed by mid-2012.

• National homelessness data collection system

  A new system for national data collection for specialist homelessness service providers was launched on 1 July 2011 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), in conjunction with Australian, State and Territory governments.

• New system to reduce time spent homeless

  In September 2011, the Department of Communities’ Homelessness Information Management Program will launch phase one of its new Homelessness Vacancy Capacity Management System to be used by 40 specialist homelessness services in Queensland’s South West, South East and Brisbane regions.

• Rebuilding homes and lives after Queensland's disasters

  In addition to supporting people to rebuild their homes, the Department of Communities’ Community Recovery and Information Centres on the Darling Downs, in South East Queensland and on the Cassowary Coast are placing special importance on the emotional support of communities.

• Building Queensland's affordable housing stock

  Queensland was allocated $1.165 billion over three years to build new social housing and repair and maintain existing social housing stock under the Australian Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan: Social Housing Initiative, announced in February 2009.

• Fresh outlook for Monte Carlo Caravan Park residents

  Happier days have arrived for 141 households in the Monte Carlo Caravan Park in Brisbane’s eastern suburb of Cannon Hill - one of three caravan parks that has benefited from the department’s Caravan Park Accommodation Program.

• Rural Housing Service Centre for Roma

  From October 2011, a new localised social housing model will see the state government lease around 140 properties to Maranoa Regional Council through Queensland's first Rural Housing Service Centre.

• RentConnect’s excellence award

  The RentConnect Expansion Team and Regional RentConnect officers received the Minister’s Award for Excellence as well as the Director-General’s Collaboration Award at the recent Staff Excellence Awards.

• Community spirit shines through tenant participation

  Across the state, each Department of Communities’ Housing Service Centre has a Tenant Participation Program that encourages local tenants to form groups and work towards a community goal.

• Garden Awards sprout a variety of prizes

  Minister for Housing Karen Struthers launched the Department of Communities’ 2011 Garden Awards in Ipswich on 18 May 2011. The annual Awards are a key feature of the departments Tenant Participation Program.

• Gary Oliver: well placed to make a difference

  The Department of Communities welcomes Gary Oliver as the new Executive Director of Indigenous Housing and Homelessness Programs.

• More information

  For more information see the following links