Case study: Toward home - new homelessness system for south australia

SOCIAL ISSUE 

Prior to 2021, the South Australian homelessness funding, like most homelessness systems around the country, was divided between multiple different service providers who weren't incentivised to work together as one system. 

The three key limitations of the system were: 

• Outcomes were not being achieved: the system was not solving or reducing homelessness, with 73% of clients having  previously received homelessness services (‘service-cyclers) 
• Disproportionate emphasis on crisis: leaving little resource for those in the system or at risk of entering the system. 
• A poorly integrated response to homelessness: not easy to access or navigate and failed to offer wrap support to meet individual and family needs. 

CLIENT CHALLENGE  

The South Australian Housing Authority (SAHA) sought to redesign the homelessness system in order to reduce the number of those at-risk of entering homelessness and the length of time people are in the system. To do this, SAHA divided its jurisdiction into five discrete regions and called on social service providers to develop solutions. 

In the Adelaide City and South region, Baptist Care SA, Lutheran Care, Mission Australia, The Salvation Army and Sonder came together to form the Toward Home Alliance. 

The challenge for the Toward Home Alliance was to redesign the homelessness system so that service users received a tailored and individualised response. Resources, accommodation and services needed to be aligned to the outcomes for each of the service user groups 

• First-time users of homelessness services; 
• Those at-risk of entering the homelessness service system;
• Long-term users (‘cyclers’) through our system, including rough sleepers; &
• Aboriginal people - who required a culturally appropriate, First -Nation led response. 

The challenge of service design was compounded by the prevalence of factors that contribute to homelessness such as mental health, physical health, disability, drug and alcohol and life trauma - requiring the intervention to holistically address these issues too. 

THE ROLE LATITUDE NETWORK PLAYED 

Latitude Network played a central role in supporting the Toward Home Alliance. The process involved uniting a diverse set of national, state, local and Aboriginal-run service providers toward a common goal of reducing homelessness in a defined geographical region. The key functions of the Latitude engagement included:

• Supporting and advising the parties in establishing the Alliance, including facilitating the decision of Lead Agency, and deciding a sound governance structure, with a clear decision-making authority;
• Cohort segmentation: using data to identify priority groups and with Alliance partners, designing/ adapting the service system to address their needs;
• Working with partners to identify client and system outcomes, together with the necessary thresholds and target success rates for each outcome ;
• Planning a seamless, sensitive transition of clients from the existing system to the new system, and then developing a comprehensive implementation plan ;
• Designing a data system and measurement: mapping data to outcomes, dashboard reporting and promoting a ‘performance culture’;
• Working with the Alliance to develop a full commercial and financial model, including avoided costs.

THE IMPACT 

The first impact was that the innovative proposal was accepted by the South Australian Government with the Alliance winning the funding for Adelaide city and South. The funding changed on July 2021, and as with any significant system change, there are always lots of elements to work through. The team has formed well together and built a strong culture of collaboration, but it is still early days to work out how well the elements are working and how best to refine and iterate them. We will keep an eye out on the Toward Home progress and now doubt the challenges of making progress.

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