Victoria launches $27.8 million assertive outreach plan to curb street homelessness

Victoria is allocating $27.8 million to broaden an assertive outreach scheme that sends homelessness workers onto streets across the state to identify and engage rough sleepers. The model, pioneered in inner Melbourne since 2018, will create a by-name list of every person sleeping rough, allowing services to prioritize the most urgent cases. The rollout will be supported by new community housing projects, including the $10 million Madden House in St Kilda, and the broader Big Housing Build targeting 11,000 additional social homes.

Former New York mayor Bill de Blasio, a speaker at the October Melbourne Assembly, will promote the strategy as essential to ending street homelessness. Experts such as George Hatvani of Launch Housing stress that success hinges on matching housing supply with timely support, noting that social housing now makes up only 3 percent of Victoria’s stock after decades of under-investment. The plan aims to shift from waiting for people to seek help to proactively connecting them with crisis and permanent accommodation.