Street to Home

Street to Home provides support to people who are sleeping rough or experiencing chronic homelessness to move into long term housing.

The 2006 Census recorded that homelessness in the inner city of Brisbane increased significantly due to:

• the decrease of affordable housing with the gentrification of the inner city;
• regulation of boarding houses and privately owned supported accommodation facilities;
• the constant flow of individuals between emergency shelters;
• failed tenancy and rough sleeping.

Many people were and continue to be trapped in a cycle of homelessness from emergency shelters to rough sleeping for years. Moving out of this cycle requires not only access to affordable and permanent housing but a process of integrating support and healthcare services to provide people with the best possible platform for a successful transition from homelessness to home. People present as an individual, as couples and as family units with the majority of rough sleepers being individuals.

Micah Projects Street to Home team with the locals in West End.

Micah Projects is focused on the delivery of an assertive outreach with a housing first response to people who are sleeping rough. It has been the experience of the organisation over 17 years of outreach work that rough sleepers comprise of two distinct population groups:

• Those experiencing episodic homelessness where a consistent assertive outreach approach can assist people to resolve their homelessness in a timely manner and decrease their length of time rough sleeping.

• Those who have been homeless for a significant period of time: from 6 months to multiple years. A recent survey of 231 on the streets and in the shelters of Brisbane identified that for 115 people, 7.7 years was the average length of time spent homeless. The remaining 128 people, spent on average 4.4 years homeless.

The Street to Home team is situated within Micah Projects Homelessness to Home Support Services. The team comprises of 11 staff, integrating Queensland  Government Management of Public Intoxication Response (Brisbane) and Street to Home homelessness response (The National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) / The National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness) programs.

The team operates 7 days per week covering a span of hours with three daily shifts from 6 am – 2 am weekdays and  11 am – 2 am weekends.