The people of Lismore and the Northern Rivers recognise the need for more social housing to address the growing number of homeless in the region, following Facebook posts from political activists that claimed free housing was available in NSW-owned buyback properties.

Today, the NSW Government is releasing its NSW Homelessness Strategy 2025-2035 with the goal that being homeless is a rare, brief and not repeated situation.

Led by Homes NSW, the whole-of-government 10-year strategy is the first of its kind in New South Wales and will shift the state's system to focus on early intervention, local coordination and long-term housing outcomes.

Developed in collaboration with homelessness and housing services, people with lived experiences of homelessness and Aboriginal organisations, the Strategy outlines a coordinated approach to homelessness reform across government, the homelessness and housing sectors, local services and communities.

Key reforms in the first stage of implementation include:

• Replacing hotel and motel stays with more appropriate homelessness accommodation delivered with supports that are tailored to the person or family’s needs.
• Developing local housing and homelessness collaboration networks in partnership with local homelessness services, housing providers, councils, to identify and address service gaps, reduce duplication and target resources where they will have the most impact.
• Establishing a NSW Street Sleeping Registry to improve service coordination for people sleeping rough by ensuring people don’t have to keep retelling their story and better coordinating access to housing and support.
• Developing new targeted responses for young people and Aboriginal people who face particular challenges in the service system.
• Designing a system-wide Housing First approach for NSW with the homelessness and housing sector, so people can access stable housing as quickly as possible, with the supports they need.
• Reducing exits from government services into homelessness, through new cross-agency governance, referral pathways and better service system responses.

The NSW Government will continue to work with the sector as these reforms are developed and implemented.

This is the latest in the NSW Government’s action to make the housing system in New South Wales fairer, which has so far seen:

• A record $6.6 billion investment into social housing and homelessness through the Building Homes for NSW program.
• The delivery of over 1,700 homes over the past year, the largest increase in government-built public, community and affordable homes in over a decade.
• The upgrading of over 6000 social homes.
• The social housing waitlist reduced by an average of 8 months across New South Wales.
• Modular housing being utilised for mass public housing for the first time in New South Wales, with over 90 modular public homes to be delivered over the next year.

For more information, please visit: www.nsw.gov.au/homelessness-strategy

Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson said, "We are formalising and embedding the Housing First approach as the official government policy to end homelessness in NSW. This approach ensures that people have stable housing first, backed in by the support they need to rebuild their lives."

"This strategy is a first for our state. It’s a game-changing, long-term approach to homelessness that shifts our focus from crisis management to prevention and support."

"You simply cannot take on a complicated challenge like homelessness without a strategy. Without a plan, your interventions are random and uncoordinated, and you can’t make or measure progress. We are changing that."

"The establishment of the NSW Street Sleeping Registry will revolutionise how we coordinate services for people experiencing homelessness. No one will have to tell their story repeatedly. We’ll connect them to housing and support faster and more effectively."

Dom Rowe, CEO of Homelessness NSW, said, “The cost of living crisis our communities are facing sees more people living in their cars, couch surfing between friends' places and worst of all sleeping rough on our streets.

“Our sector has been calling for a whole-of-government response to this crisis, that acknowledges a need to respond now but also sets a reform agenda for the future. 

“This Homelessness Strategy answers that call and sets a path to a better future for people at risk of homelessness and the services that support them.”