New benefits for older homeless people
Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, has made two major announcements that will benefit thousands of older homeless people:
- The recognition of homeless people, or those at risk of becoming homeless as a ‘special needs’ group under the Aged Care Principles; and
- $900,000 joint funding boost to Home and Community Care (HACC) services from the Australian and Victorian Governments.
Changes to the legislation were one measure contained in the Australian Government’s White Paper on Homelessness released by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek in December last year.
In addition to amending the Aged Care Principles to include homeless older people as a “special needs” group, the Rudd Labor Government is also responding to the special needs of homeless older Australians by:
- Allocating aged care places in future Aged Care Approval Rounds, to allow aged providers with a proven track record in the field of homeless older people to apply for specific beds; and
- Providing capital funds for at least one new specialist facility for homeless older people a year for the next four years to 2012.
In addition to the regulatory changes, the Rudd Labor Government and the Brumby government are providing joint funding of $900,000 to support a new meals program in Melbourne. This joint funding is through the HACC program and will provide up to 43,000 extra meals to homeless older people in inner Melbourne.
It will also support more than 11,000 hours of social support for vulnerable people.
The total HACC funding to Victoria under the HACC agreement will be $440.45 million, of which $264.09 million will be contributed by the Australian Government and $176.36 million by the Victorian government.
