Reforming Temporary Accommodation Grant Program

Talk about a new funding program that we're implementing at Holmes NSW, the Homelessness Innovation Fund.
I'd like to acknowledge that I'm on the land of the gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to elders, past and present.
I'd also like to acknowledge my colleagues online who share their knowledge with us in the housing and homelessness sectors everyday.
It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Today's a really important first step in really implementing a new approach to homelessness in New South Wales.
I said that we were very proud of the budget that we were given in the last budget and the reason for that was in relation to homelessness.
We've now been able to put together 2 previously siloed pieces of the puzzle. In response responses to homelessness in New South Wales.
We've been able to think about temporary accommodation and the crisis response to homelessness and think about whether or not there's better ways of doing that. The Homelessness Innovation Fund is really the first step in trying to test new ideas and approaches to bring those two parts of the.
Homelessness system together.
I'd like to really thank.
The three peat bodies in New South Wales that have helped us design the Program, Homelessness NSW.
NSW and.
Ya, the reason I want to thank you is that we get we wanted to turn a corner in the way that we worked with our peak bodies around developing programs.
We've had spirited debate and discussion about the way that this program will work, and it really is down to that debate that I hope we get a better response in terms of our homelessness innovation fund.
I would like to thank.
John from shelter who helped us launch the fund yesterday.
I know that it's very short notice for so many people online, but I really want to welcome.
Everyone online to help talk through this new fund and what it means for you and your services.
I would also like to acknowledge that it's a busy period of time and the work that you do at the frontline of the housing crisis means that there's lots of priorities that you'll have been to juggle.
We're trying to take that into account with the design of this new fund.
We're not trying to over engineer things. We're trying to provide opportunities for you to come to us with good ideas, opportunities for innovation and and be able to test those with us in a way in a very.
Responsive way with government so that we're not burning through lots of your time and energy and effort when you really are at the at the coal face of doing that hard work.
So this is the first time, not the last time we get to talk about the HIF. We'll give you an overview of the program today and how you can apply.
But I just want to assure you that this will be an ongoing funding program.
So we really.
If you get the sense of this is the work that you would want to do in the future. This is not the one and only bide at the cherry. There will be other opportunities. And so having this new approach.
For you to bring ideas means that you'll be able to make a decision for your organization about applying at a time that suits you in the best way.
Finally, we do want to hear it from you. If there are particular issues coming up for you through the implementation process from councils or from local planning issues, broader policy issues so that you can flag those with us as well if they're providing.
Is to you providing a good service. We need to know about it and we need to help work with you and and make sure we're influencing other parts of government in terms of their policy agenda as well.
I might just bring up the presentation today. We're going to talk to you about the heif where it's come from. Kim Campbell, who's our acting director of homelessness.
We'll talk you through the different streams of it, and then we're going to have a bit of an overview of how we will actually.
Implement and how you'll be able to apply online for this new grant.
Questions are welcome.
Please pop your questions into the chat. We'll take those questions and we'll be able to respond to them today. But also if there are key themes, we'll develop be developing AQ and A and we'll keep that updated on the website so that you'll be able to check in.
And and and raise issues with us in an iterative way through this with through the grant process.
So in terms of today, we're going through the grant programs. We're talking about the timelines.
How you can submit an application and then any other further information that you might need to or want to discuss with us.
Next slide.
So just in terms of our vision of and objectives, we are trying to work in a different way in terms of our partnerships working with our sector colleagues to help design and Co design new programs. And I think today the hip is an example of that.
Next slide.
So in the budget, you will have heard that $527 million was allocated.
That's in addition to the existing funding for our homelessness services in NSW and and programs like Assertive Outreach and 100 million of that was earmarked to establish the Homelessness Innovation Fund.
So this is really about supporting.
Organizations to to test different models.
Of service innovation and also to help us deal with issues that we're grappling with.
It's not a surprise, then, that you will see one of the key streams of this funding program is about reforming temporary accommodation. I've made it really clear that my preference is supported.
Models for people in crisis, not hotel and motel accommodation, and by joining and thinking about our funding as a whole, I'm really wanting to.
See how we can work with you to transform and get out of that accommodation into the services that you do best. Our homelessness services deliver fantastic results for people in crisis, a hotel and motel accommodation should be the last resort ever, and we want to work with you.
To boost capacity to provide those more supported options.
Next slide.
So the the eligibility criteria for participating in this program is that it is open to all accredited specialist homelessness services.
All registered Community Housing providers, Aboriginal Community Housing providers, both through national and local schemes, we will consider applications from organisations.
With with proposals, but they must agree to achieve SHS accreditation.
Or they must be housing providers in the process of registration and and I can't stress this enough, we've got a strong viable system in NSW. We've got organisations that are registered, we've got organizations who are accredited and that is our preference to be doing business with.
Those organisations, so we are open to new ideas and services, but there must be a pathway through to accreditation and registration.
And we must see that really clearly in your application.
Partnerships are welcome, particularly when we're looking at housing and support initiatives or temporary accommodation.
Not all services have have the ability to provide all of those different components in one, and we really want to be encouraging that within within our service system.
That also means looking at particular locations and how.
Partnerships will occur in a region wherever possible. We don't wanna be duplicating service delivery. We want to be helping to streamline and make it easier for people to navigate the service system.
So we really want those partnerships to be at the fore and that includes broader strategic objectives like partnering with Aboriginal led organizations to build cultural capacity and cultural safety in our homelessness and housing systems.
Next slide. Thanks.
So I'm going to pass over to him to go through the details of of the two grant funding streams, and then we'll have an overview of of how you can apply. And once again, if you have particular questions, please feel free to put those into the chat. Kim.
Thanks bec.
I will just say we have disabled the chat just because there's so many people here, but those we've got e-mail addresses that are ready to go in terms of submitting questions, whether that's about the grant application.
Or about particulars about what you're thinking of proposing or wanting to clarify things. They'll be here. This slide deck will also be up on the websites available for you to work through.
We more than happy to answer questions and where we getting lots of questions around the same things. We'll be updating those frequently asked questions, those pieces of information on the websites as well.
So we will keep talking with you about what we're hearing, what we need to clarify, so that you're as prepared as possible to apply for these.
So thanks Beck for the introduction.
We've got two separate grant programs because we wanted to have a very specific focus for each of those.
And to be very clear on what we wanted to target in this first year with the HIF, so the first one of those.
About the crisis that we're experiencing right now, and as BEC said, wanting to move away from our money going into commercial motels where we're not getting good support or outcomes for our clients and using that money instead to support the system, that will actually get outcomes and get.
Results for our clients, which is the system that you all operate.
So why focus on TA?
We know that we're in crisis and we know that TA is going doing more than it was designed to do.
And that's that's adding to the experience of our clients not getting where they need to.
One of the really distressing figures for us is that the average length of stay.
Yes, there's lots of extra people staying in TA, but the length they're staying for is now at an average of 27 nights, which is not what TA was designed for. And we need to get out of that.
The other piece is the number of people who are in TA for a period and we're seeing them back in TA again and again over the years and we need them to have one experience of TA and move into the system and get support and away from that.
Crisis. So those are real focus for this grant.
As we move through the slides, we can give you some more details.
So the objectives of the grant program itself is to reduce the cost, use and length of stay of that commercial accommodation, but also for people in TA. So whoever's providing it's still a very unstable environment.
So moving away from that being where people stay for those extended periods, we want to increase access to appropriate support wherever people are staying. We want to encourage flexible and sustainable use.
And support services.
So if you've got a property and you're thinking of a way that you can engage in this great, we're also conscious that the system will change over time.
We aren't going to maintain this crisis for this long, and so we need you to be thinking about how do your properties or offerings change over time as we bring the crisis down.
We're also looking to attract Co contributions of all kinds from the sector.
So what are the things that you can bring to the table?
We can add too and then impact the system through that.
The scale of the grants that are available is, as you know, there's $30 million available this year.
We'll talk through how we're doing that in rounds across the year and we've really focused kind of on splitting that across the two grant programs for TA given what it is, we've set a maximum amount on each proposal application of 500,000.
There isn't a limit though on the number of proposals you could put in, or the number of proposals.
Different organisations and with the TA there is a component where you can look to be charging us a nightly room rate. Once we actually place a client with your service.
So there's those two ways of funding it, and they can be combined in your proposal. Some proposals that we receive through either of these grant streams may be funded by other mechanisms or processes where it makes sense to do that.
But the HIF for us is that really wide open gate and we want to be hearing those good ideas.
So we want them to be brought forward.
Funding will need to be spent within 12 months of executing the agreement, so this isn't recurrent funding.
We're not looking to expand the system and make it much bigger.
We want it to be something that for 12 months makes a change and then we can see what's next.
On to the next slide.
Thanks. So service requirements your proposals will need to describe the basics of your operational model, your capacity to provide it both getting it up and going and also to have it running through those 12 months.
We're not looking to fund something that's not going to make changes for a couple of years.
We really need to see that it's gonna have quite quick changes and those changes will be effective.
The amenity and the appropriateness of the property will be taken into consideration.
Commercial motels really aren't the greatest places to stay.
We don't want to just recreate that. We want these to be positive experiences for people who are already experiencing crisis, and we know that you're very much the advocates for that.
And so we want to see that coming through in the proposals.
As I said, we need to.
We will be mindful of how quickly the model can be operational.
And how the model model or property can be transitioned in the future. So as I said, that flexibility in the proposal, we don't want to be creating an enormous crisis system that doesn't move people through to somewhere different.
And so we don't want to be setting something up.
That's very long term. We need it to be flexible and responsive to as this crisis moves through.
The assessment criteria are very similar.
So we're looking at those in terms of our priorities for proposals, but the assessment criteria themselves is value for money.
We have a limited amount of money and we will be looking for the widest amount of impact with that and we'll look at that across all of it. All of the proposals as we assess them.
We will be looking specifically at how it reduces demand for TA through the level and quality of the supports offered and how it coordinates into the pathway that we have available to us how the model will reduce the nightly cost of TA. So demand and also cost.
We don't want to just replace the system with different providers. We want to be seen the benefit of the skills and specialties that you have available to you to have that impact for the clients. We will be looking at the type and value of Co contributions. What else?
Is being brought into that that we can't be doing and that's the benefit of doing these sorts of processes as a collaboration. As I said, the amenity of the properties, how long they're available for.
The level and quality of the support services that will be provided. So we're very much looking for something beyond just say.
And the viability of of the model and the sustainability of it over time. Again, we're not looking to set up new recurrent funding models if there's great ideas around that, we'd love to hear them through the through the HIF. But it won't be what is successful necessarily in.
This grant program.
Moving on to the other program we have open, which is a, this is the wide gate.
This is the really open we need to be moving forward with our system.
We have some big plans for how we're reforming that.
Service system over the next few years with you and that's been where that lots of robust conversation with our peaks and our other advocates. And so this is that bringing that forward those ideas and beginning that process with you and giving you a a step up to en.
You to start that transformation with us and help guide that transformation. So while we're focusing on service and reform.
It's because we want you to have the great ideas. We know you've got the great ideas about how we can transform the system and never.
The government thinks we've got all the ideas, so this is our way to open up and hear those and work with you to make those happen.
The purpose of this particular grant program is to support homelessness services, to transform your current accommodation or service responses, to deliver more or better outcomes for our clients, to support those homelessness services in action research to test new service delivery models. We know changes are coming down the.
Line with recommissioning if you want to try something out, test it.
Build your capacity.
This grant is an opportunity to do that and to increase the flexibility of assets and support so that they can adapt to changing need and demand for services and housing and how we can have a more tenure neutral system where the support goes with the client independent of.
Whether they have where their accommodation is or supplied from.
So some examples I have to stress very clearly.
These are examples.
It's just to give you an idea of the breadth of proposals we're hoping for and the things that will be considered.
I'll run through the assessment criteria in terms of what we'll be looking for.
So these are very much just examples.
It's deliberately flexible program types of things.
We might be looking for is using.
Meanwhile, use property so properties that have an end of life for various reasons to increase the supply of medium term accommodation for people with less complex needs has to be appropriate for the clients that we're proposing to.
That would use them, reconfiguring existing crisis or transition transitional accommodation to accommodate more clients.
To improve outcomes for those clients, flexible outreach supports for clients with complex needs possibly staying in motels, possibly staying elsewhere.
How can we get more support to those people to help stabilise their housing, more Aboriginal services and mainstream and non Aboriginal services, improving the cultural safety of their services and accommodation, new or improved responses to specific cohorts, children and young people, families.
Women and children leaving violence improved.
Triage improved triaging and support coordination responses.
So when somebody's.
Bring into the system.
How do we get them to the right part of the system?
Quickly and with a more targeted response or initial smaller grant to develop prototype service models or transformation proposals that you could then come back potentially in later rounds to show what you've learned or proven through that initial grant to come back for a fuller proposal.
So the scale and conditions of that grant funding, as I talked about, we've got 30 million allocated for this year.
That's being split fairly evenly across the two proposals 2 grant programs.
But again, we'll be very responsive to the types of proposals we get.
So for this grant program, there is no specific limit on the value that you can apply for.
But remembering we're being very clear, the attention intention is to achieve a statewide impact.
So proposals will be assessed with the intention of sharing that impact across a range of regions and cohorts and trying to fill gaps that we know exist, so funding through this program as well will need to be spent within 12 months.
We may vary the distribution of funds depending on the number of funding applications submitted.
As in, we won't necess.
Hold back funds from later rounds or we won't release it all in the very first round, so we will be mindful of that process.
We may also offer successful applicants a package lower than the amount requested, which is fairly standard for grant processes, but we would engage in a discussion with you about that.
And then the assessment criteria very similar to the other programs.
So value for money, we need to be looking at how the project proposal will provide accommodation for more clients within existing support resources.
How it might support people out of crisis accommodation and into more stable and appropriate accommodation?
How the project may reach more clients or deliver better outcomes?
How it might improve the coordination of the service delivery? We know there's lots of gaps, but we also know there's lots of mismatches.
And disjointedness. And if your proposal has great ways to join us up better, we're wanting to hear about that, how the model responds to particular cohorts or regional factors as well, evidence that the applicant has the capacity and capability to execute the proposal, whether that's you alone or.
Within those partnerships that we spoke about and how the model reshaped service delivery or contributes to that system transformation that we're all committed to.
There's some timelines we have for this for the 2425 opening, so they've both opened today at midday and we've already had some people go in and start applications, which is amazing.
Word has definitely got around and those applications for this year will remain open until the 30th of April.
We will have 3 assessment periods.
For both programs.
So programs submitted proposals are submitted by the 30th of October.
Will be considered through November, with some award awarding of grants announced in November.
We'll then do that process again in February and then through April, so through May.
So there's three goes at it.
We didn't want to sit on the money for a long period of time, but we also didn't want to put organizations off. If you need a bit more time to prepare your proposals, there will be opportunities coming through the year, so we will get stuff out as quickly.
As we can in November and then follow that up with two subsequent rounds.
And I'm going to hand over to Tracy now if it's working just to walk you through Smarty grants is the process.
We've chosen to use.
It's a standard NSW government approach to grants.
It's got a very standard process, but we've made it is user friendly and is straightforward as we can, but Tracy will walk you through a few of the particulars.
Thanks Kim.
My name is Tracy Duncan.
I manage grant design and support for the dcj cluster.
And this is as you can see, it's such an exciting program.
So with Smarty grants Smarty grants, as Kim said, is NSW government's preferred portal for grant applications and it it also sits under the NSW Grant Administration Guide and has standard templates and forms to meet the legislative requirements under that guide which includes min.
Ministerial staff as well as government employees.
So both both grant programs come under an open.
Repetitive process, which means they're open to everybody who meets the eligibility and they will be competitively assessed against that assessment criteria.
So to ensure my best tip, when you are looking at your assessment criteria is look at them separately.
Think some the eligibility is the same.
So you need to be understanding the differences in your applications. If you're choosing to submit an application for both grant programs and I think one of the the things that I like to encourage people is to think of the program guidelines as like a comprehension test.
The answers are in the guidelines for you to follow. So and please use all of the supporting documentation and resources that are available.
On the webpage site in your form.
It will help you.
There's checklists.
There's examples of grant writing.
There's support for the Smarty grants portal.
There is examples of grant writing, so it's a.
It's a really great resource, so please take your time as you've heard from Kim, this is going to be open for a long time, so most grant programs have time limitations.
So you will see when you log in.
You can either log in throughnsw.gov dot au, which is the grant funding Finder portal, or you could log in.
Through the Dcj grants home page externally for service providers. Either way, you'll come to the same point, which is your application form.
So this is what the front page of the Smarty grants application will look like.
It'll look exactly the same for both programs, obviously with different names. You can preview the form.
You can download the form.
You can save the form. I think one of the important things in Smarty grants now is that you can actually set up your organization's profile in Smarty grants and you can do that once.
So you can put people that have access, create logins and give them all access.
You can mark what roles and responsibilities they can have in the smiley grants portal for you.
Thanks, Sandy.
I think one of the the big differences we spoke about partnerships earlier on in the presentation.
I just wanted to call out subcontracting.
So subcontracting, there's some links on this page that you'll receive to to have a read, but it's where you want to you you believe you have something to offer and would like to make an application, but you don't meet the eligibility criteria and you may like may wish.
To sub contract with another.
Organization that does meet.
The eligibility requirements of the grant program.
So that is what subcontracting is. For example, you may not be a registered housing provider, so you would need to partner and subcontract with a provider to be eligible to submit a joint application.
Thank you.
So the assessment process with with grants the the templates that are used to create the form.
There are some what we call standard fields and locked fields that are set by NSW Treasury that are mandatory requirements for all grants under the NSW Grant Administration guide, where it's not mandatory. As Kim mentioned, we have made it as flexible and as open.
And clear as possible. There are very clear steps in an assessment process, so it's really important that you understand.
That in those program guidelines.
The assessment criteria you will be comparatively assessed against each criteria when you see your form, you will see a risk corresponding question around that assessment criteria.
So you need to respond and ensure that your response meets that criteria.
Each application is then assessed by independent assessors.
Each application is looked at twice separately.
And then the recommendations are sent to another independent assessment panel.
And that panel is is their job is to review the recommended assist applications in or.
Decrease the objective cement is as well and to have that spread across the priority groups listed in the guidelines.
The assessment panel then will make recommendations for awarding of six of grant funding to the delegated decision maker in the grant.
Process and then applications are notified and then we go down the contracting path. So with a grant funding agreement, it is a 12 month one off agreement.
As Kim mentioned, we use a payment system called PAX and it is has.
Be automatic signing.
Process so your grant funding grant will come via that back in the portal and payments made-up front to grant funding agreement.
We also have embedded through the guidelines frequently asked questions. The website and this deck support emails.
There's a program area.
Support emails, which is support e-mail address which is my team as well as any application issues regarding to the portal itself. There is an e-mail embedded in your form for Smarty grants who can help you directly if you're having problems with the application portal.
And that's it for me.
Thank you all.
And I will hand back to Rebecca. Thanks, Tracy.
It got a bit glitchy for me, but I just wanted to let you know.
Please go online.
We have got a frequently asked questions section online and as new new questions come in, we'll be able to keep republishing that and updating it.
I know that a number of you will have heard about Commonwealth funding opportunities.
Just like existing programs like the Chief.
And the half we we support layering of subsidy options, we support bringing proposals that that maximize funding from government.
So we do encourage you to do that.
We also know that there are a number of organisations who may have access to property.
And.
May want to partner if we receive those proposals, we will be passing them through to your peak bodies.
Your peak bodies can help you through this process as well. They can raise questions with us as well through homes NSW and through the grant process.
So if you have any uncertainties, go back to peak body.
Or ask us through through the Smarty Grants portal and we'll be able to update the frequently asked questions. But I think we've reached the end of our time.
I just want to encourage people to really have a look through the grant process, realised that we're trying to adopt an open approach that will be running a series of phases for the HIF. So you know if you've got those immediate opportunities, we'd love to hear from you.
But there's time.
You can have a look and see.
Where the strategic areas that you want to focus on to support people in homelessness and you can take some time to develop those proposals and and be assured that we will be assessing that in a rolling program and that this will be an ongoing funding program as well.
For you to to really bring those ideas to us.
And you know, if you're thinking about chunking the proposal, that is OK as well. If you want to come to us with the first part of the proposal which involves.
Initial work and then come back through a grant proposal.
Please do that through the the stream. Two of the program.
We are open to working with you as our partners in addressing homelessness in NSW, to look at different and new ways of working.
And so thank you so much for your time today.
For coming online and finding out about the grant process, please feel free to go back online and once again thank you for your ongoing commitment.
Helping us work to address the housing and the homelessness crisis in NSW. Thanks.