Consultation process for the National Housing and Homelessness Plan
To help inform the development of the National Housing and Homelessness Plan (the Plan), the department held consultations from August 2023 to November 2023. Participants could respond to an issues paper through an online submission form, which opened on 7 August and closed on 20 October, or they could attend a range of online or face-to-face consultation sessions.
With the assistance of The Social Deck, who were contracted to provide facilitation services, the department engaged with community members and a range of stakeholders in each state and territory through open community forums and stakeholder roundtables between 28 August 2023 and 30 November 2023
The department (via The Social Deck) also ran targeted sessions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other community members with varied lived experiences.
Issues Paper and Submissions
The Australian Government released an Issues Paper on Housing and Homelessness in Australia. The Issues Paper provides a brief overview of some of the known issues in different parts of the housing and homelessness systems and poses a series of discussion questions. Stakeholders and members of the public were invited to share their ideas and experiences by either responding to guided, short-form questions or lodging a written submission.
When making a submission or completing the short-form questions, participants were encouraged to refer to the Issues Paper. The Issues Paper contains questions against each of the focus areas that participants may have thought about when making their submission. A summary paper is also available, including versions in Auslan and Easy Read.
Responses to the Issues Paper closed on 20 October 2023.
The Department received more than 500 responses to the Issues Paper through the online submissions process. Submissions have been published (where permission was given to do so) and are available to read using the link below.
Public and stakeholder consultation sessions
Opportunities for members of the public to attend face-to-face community events in each State and Territory, commenced on 28 August 2023. For people unable to attend a face-to-face event, the department also ran two online public webinars. In addition, there were a number of face-to-face and online roundtable consultations with sector stakeholders.
In total, there were 73 face-to-face and online events with 1,191 participants.
Consultation Findings
A summary report highlighting insights shared during consultations is now available and can be viewed below.