September 30, 2026 — 5:00am

On any given day in Melbourne, hundreds of people are sleeping rough. This is not a hidden statistic. Indeed, every day in this city two worlds brush against each other on the streets, those who have a home, somewhere secure and safe in which to live, and those who do not.

The Age reported this week on a $27.8 million statewide expansion over the next decade of an assertive outreach program, which could make a significant reduction in the numbers of homeless people. The program involves, as its name suggests, support workers going out onto the streets to connect with the homeless, build a profile (known as a by-name list), and trust, and steer them towards services such as housing.

The program, which has had success in inner Melbourne since it began in 2018, falls under the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing Services.A department spokesperson says, “For the first time, there will be a statewide network of assertive outreach teams helping connect more people sleeping rough with housing and support services.”

While the expansion of the assertive outreach program is to be welcomed, it is but one part of the whole. At its core, homelessness is about housing. It is a mark of a society that it looks after those who are in need. It is also a mark of its priorities. The COVID years showed what could be done. To stop the spread of the disease, the homeless were housed. But with the return to normality, alas normality returned to the plight of the homeless. They were back trying to survive on the streets.

This decade Victoria has seen a change in the cause of homelessness. In 2020-2021, family and domestic violence were the prime causes of people seeking homeless services. Now, financial problems have overtaken those causes, with the housing crisis also a factor. Clearly, the long-term solution is to remove the causes of a person’s homelessness. But in the short-term, relief can be delivered if there is enough political will and investment, both public and private. It must be delivered.

Homelessness organisation Launch Housing, in its Advance to Zero program, led by George Hatvani, promotes the use of assertive outreach and by-name lists. Hatvani says, “We know what it takes to end homelessness and end rough-sleeping homelessness. It’s a combination of housing and support in the right numbers and at the right times.”

An example of this is St Kilda’s Madden House, which opened a year ago. The $10 million facility has led to a halving of rough sleepers in the City of Port Phillip. It is funded by the state government and the council. St Kilda Community Housing chief executive Andrew D’Arcy sees Madden House as a blueprint. “We can solve rough sleeping, but it does involve a little bit of investment.”

Former New York mayor Bill de Blasio, who will attend the Melbourne Assembly public forum next month, believes in the assertive outreach approach. He told The Age that in his running for mayor he soon realised that building profiles of homeless people could help.

“What we started to do was create a profile for each person of exactly what they had experienced, the different parts of their reality that were weighing them down, whether it was medical, physical, mental health issues, employment issues, criminal justice issues,” he said.

As Melbourne looks to a more prosperous future, it cannot leave homeless people behind. If a relatively modest investment of less than $30 million in assertive outreach can have such a profound impact on the lives of homeless people, then perhaps our decision makers also need to show their assertiveness.

Could this be the moment our local and state governments commit to eliminating homelessness? And will they match that ambition with the funding and support needed to genuinely tackle the issue?

With the exception of action during the pandemic, previous efforts to tackle this complex issue have been inadequate. Assertive outreach should be the start – not the end – of a genuine attempt to get vulnerable people off the streets.