Louise is a 36-year-old single mum with a son and daughter, aged 8 and 5. Her daughter has a disability and uses a wheelchair. She and her children have been staying with family since they lost the family home 12 months ago, but that arrangement can’t continue. Louise has been visiting the local community health centre and the social worker there suggested she apply for housing assistance.
What happens next… under Housing Pathways
The social worker at Louise’s community health centre helps her complete an application for housing assistance that she prints from the Housing Pathways website. A local community housing provider assesses Louise as being eligible for housing assistance and private rental assistance. Because Louise’s needs are quite specific, the information in her application triggers the need for a detailed assessment. The community housing provider contacts Louise to conduct the detailed assessment and make sure her needs are accurately – and securely – recorded on the register. The community housing provider places her on the NSW Housing Register – a centralised waiting list that can be accessed by all participating organisations in Housing Pathways. Now, she’ll be considered for vacancies that occur with several local community housing organisations and Housing NSW.
She’s also offered assistance with bond and advance rent through Rentstart if she is able to secure a private rental property. Temporary accommodation may be offered throughout the process if Louise is no longer able to safely remain where she is staying.
When she needs to update her application with her new address and telephone number, she calls the community housing organisation, which makes the changes to the NSW Housing Register.
Based on the detailed assessment of her application, Louise is listed for priority assistance. The community housing provider updates Louise’s records to reflect the heightened priority.
All the organisations participating in Housing Pathways operating in her nominated area have access to the same details about Louise’s needs – one application, one record.
When a vacancy comes up in nearby public housing, the local client service team accesses the NSW Housing Register to create a shortlist of candidates who may be suitable for the house. Louise is identified as the most suitable applicant on the register.
Louise is offered the house and, while she considers it, her application for housing is put on hold. The house suits Louise and her children’s needs and she accepts the offer, giving Louise and her children a safe, secure home for the first time in a year. Her name is then removed from the register.
What happened next…under the old system
The social worker gives Louise several application forms for different housing providers. Each has slightly different requirements, needs slightly different information and has different priority ranking systems.
To maximise her chances of being offered accommodation, Louise applies to the local Housing NSW office and four different community housing providers in the area. She submits five paper-based applications and tells five different client service officers about her situation and what she needs – particularly the importance of having a home that is suitable for a child in a wheelchair. Three of the organisations want to conduct more detailed assessments, but they need her to come back at another time.
On three separate occasions, she undertakes detailed assessments with the various organisations, again telling each of them about her needs and the needs of her children and their housing history. Louise has to make arrangements for someone to care for the children so she can visit each of the offices on different days.
A month later, Louise has had to leave the house she has been staying in and move into crisis accommodation. She contacts each of the organisations separately to tell them about her change of circumstances, give them her new temporary address and seek more urgent help. It takes her most of a day to update all the organisations she is registered with.
On a regular basis, she calls five different telephone numbers to find out how her application is progressing and where she is on their waiting list.
Louise receives a letter from one of the providers she is registered with offering her a house. The house suits Louise and her children’s needs and she accepts the offer, giving Louise and her children a safe, secure home for the first time in a year.
Despite being suitably housed, Louise continues to be listed on each of the other housing provider’s waiting lists. She has to ring each of the other providers to inform them that she has a home and no longer needs to be on their list.
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