Communities and Justice

Homelessness Innovation Fund (HIF) 2025-26

Boosting Supported Accommodation Options to reduce Temporary Accommodation

The NSW Government’s 2024/25 Budget provided $527.6 million in funding over four years for homelessness services as part of a record $6.6 billion investment to reduce homelessness and to increase and improve social housing. As part of that announcement, 100 million over 4 years was allocated and committed to the HIF.  

The first HIF allocations occurred in 2024/25 and funded 70 projects to implement new service approaches and investment in targeted early intervention or prevention responses.

The FY 2025/26 HIF budget is $20 million. An RFT opened in October 2025.

In the 2025-26 round, HIF sought proposals from the sector to:

  • support the delivery of cost-effective alternatives to hotel and motel accommodation that are owned or managed by non-government organisations (NGOs), and
  • service delivery proposals that can shorten and/or prevent repeat stays in temporary accommodation by improving entry prevention, rapid rehousing, and sustainable exit strategies.

The HIF has set a 10% (minimum) target to fund Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations (ACCO) led partnerships to promote culturally safe housing responses.

Request for Tender (RFT)

The HIF Tender is open to registered Community Housing Providers (CHPs), Aboriginal Community Housing Providers (ACHPs) and accredited Specialist Homelessness Services (SHSs).

One HIF RFT was conducted in FY 25/26. Proposals have been assessed and proponents will be informed shortly. For this round, the market’s response was stronger than expected and the large number of bids received, oversubscribed the available $20m creating  a future pipeline of HIF projects for Homes NSW  to consider. Homes NSW reserves the right to fund these before another HIF RFT Assessment Round 2 is released.

Further assessment rounds will be announced as funding is confirmed, providing the market with more opportunities to bid.

FAQs

Request for Tenders for Homelessness Innovation Fund Frequently Asked Questions can be found here (PDF, 158.6 KB).

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