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NCOSS spoke to Dignity’s CEO Suzanne Hopman.
How did Dignity Australia get started?
I’ve been working in social services for a long time, and just became increasingly frustrated by the number of people who fell through the cracks in the system and weren’t able to quickly receive the right support that they needed to rapidly end their homelessness. So, in 2015 I opened a guest house for women and children experiencing homelessness as an alternative to temporary accommodation in a hotel or motel.
We’ve rapidly grown since then. We now provide support and temporary accommodation for up to 400 people every night in multiple districts in New South Wales. We also operate prevention programs nationally for people at risk of homelessness and in several longer-term innovative housing models, so providing stable housing for people who need additional support to find their way out of homelessness.
Tell me about Dignity Australia’s Ready To Work Housing project.
Some of the guests who stay at Dignity-supported temporary accommodation tell us that they are eager to enter or re-enter paid employment. However, they face multiple barriers, including challenges maintaining work while trying to navigate the housing system.
We wanted to develop a program to remove some of those barriers and be able to support people, not only with stable housing, but with employment opportunities. So, in our ready to work housing, we have stable, affordable housing for up to 12 months. It provides job readiness and employment support, including skill development workshops and employment opportunities. And we partner with employers who we work alongside in a trauma-informed way to provide those opportunities.
How is Dignity breaking down stigma towards people experiencing homelessness?
We actively challenge the misconceptions about people experiencing homelessness. We create meaningful opportunities for connection and understanding with corporate organisations, schools, community groups and others to share real and de-identified stories and encourage people to rethink their long-held assumptions.
For example, we have schools that make meals for us, and we will engage actively with those students around what homelessness is and what it isn’t, and answer truthfully some of the questions that they have. People have questions around what they see or what they understand, and open conversations can really shift perceptions.
And we have corporate volunteers who pack hampers or will come and assist with the setup of a new property, and we use this opportunity to be able to talk about homelessness. Being able to share things like, for example, that our youngest guest was a three-day-old baby, because people still have that stereotypical image of a man on a corner near a train station. That’s what most people still think of when they think of homelessness.
What does the future look like?
I have never seen homelessness at the levels that we’re seeing it now. But alarmingly, the lead indicators are showing that homelessness is going to increase. What the next 12 months looks like, we just don’t know. Preparing for that, when we already have more needs than what we’re able to meet, it’s really challenging.