Hard work by homeless people and their advocates has helped convince the NSW Premier to support a project that puts Housing NSW representatives in direct contact with homelessness people.

The Premier’s Council has established a Consumers’ Forum Homelessness Working Group as a way to ensure Housing NSW representatives hear first-hand from homeless people.

Representatives from Housing NSW are part of the working group, as are members of the Consumer Advisory Council, a group of 11 consumer representatives who are homeless or formerly homeless.

The working group met for the first time late last year.

‘The inclusion of Consumer Advisory Council members in the homelessness working group addresses a concern often expressed by homeless people who have participated in government consultations,’ said the Coordinator of the Homeless Persons’ Legal Service (HPLS), Julie Hourigan-Ruse (pictured).

‘Homeless people who participated in the NSW Consumers’ Forums on Homelessness in 2010 are concerned that information flows one-way and that no positive change from Government ever eventuates from the consultations.

‘HPLS sees the establishment of the homelessness working group as a positive step towards addressing those concerns.

‘The working group will identify and implement key recommendations from the Consumers’ Forums on Homelessness, particularly in relation to Housing NSW policies and procedures,’ Ms Hourigan-Ruse said.

HPLS, together with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Street Care Sydney and Street Care Hunter, established the Consumer Advisory Council as a way to connect homeless people with government policy makers.

Consumer Advisory Council members represent the diversity of people who experience homelessness: men and women, people who are transgender, young people, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, women who have experienced domestic violence,  people who have been released from prison, people with mental illness and people with addictions.

HPLS, the Newcastle and Hunter Homelessness Interagency Network and Parramatta City Council support members of the Council.

At the November 2010 Premier’s Council meeting, the NSW Premier announced that PIAC would receive $30,000 to undertake this work with HPLS in 2011.