Crisis Accommodation

Frank Wilkie116:42

Put the motion those in favour? Councillor Lorentson? Yes. Finzel, Wilkie and Phillips against. Councillor Stockwell, Councillor Wegener. The motion is carried. Now on to item 5.5. Another notified motion. Crisis accommodation. Councillor Finzel would you like to read out your motion please. 5.5. We'll just get that up on the screen for you. Has been for us some time. Jen? Not her, it's-- Councillor Finzel would you like to read out your motion please. Of course.

Karen Finzel117:36

Thank you Mr Chair. The recommendation 5.5, crisis accommodation. That Council commit to ongoing advocacy to the State government to increase funding for A, crisis accommodation facilities, B, the delivery of structured programs that support learning and understanding around domestic violence behaviours and C, a referral process to onsite supported transition accommodation, specific-- specifically designed to address family domestic violence and abuse.

Brian Stockwell122:19

I will briefly because as Councillor Finzel suggested. This is the biggest social issue for the country. The last we heard statistics about police on the Sunshine Coast. It is by far the most time consuming aspect of policing. It by far the something consuming aspect of policing. It is something that is very gender based and the majority of the perpetrators are male. And yet when we look at crisis accommodation it generally requires the mum and the children to be moved out of the family home and the perpetrator stay there. So one of the aspects I'd like to see advocacy on is to look at the perpetrator crisis accommodation because it's one of the things we don't have in our Shire or I believe on the Sunshine Coast. It's about actually addressing the problem at its core in terms of providing a Shire that is safe for everyone and I therefore support the point and I understand that underlying Councillor Finzel's motion is that desire turn that we our focus to the well overdue community plan review of the social charter to really refocus this Council's efforts on the range of social issues both positive and negative that we need to address.

Frank Wilkie123:40

Councillor warnock, Director warnock? Go now. Come out, come Director Rawlings. I'm not acting either. Would you be able to give us an update on Council's work in this space? In terms of crisis accommodation?

We are doing a lot of we work in the housing space. Including advocacy around crisis accommodation. There is actually a new funding. Program, a $100 million funding program that's been announced for crisis accommodation, councillors Councillors will recall we. This is one of our key advocacy pieces in the recent state advocacy document that we put forward. So we have reached out to partners and stakeholders in this space to advise them of the funding and we'll be following up, I was just actioning it this morning, following up about whether there are opportunities in our Shire to seek further funding and grant funding to either support agencies to provide crisis accommodation facilities, for instance, as it's a capital funding program, and what role Council can play in terms of partnering, letters of support, assisting with grant applications, all those sorts of things. So we're doing as much as what we can in terms of advocating in this space.

Jessica Phillips125:13

Yes, Jess. On a topic, thank you, that I'm very familiar with and probably just on the back of Councillor Stockwell's suggestion and I just want to give some real grassroots information about how that looks on the ground. Police and our community, if police respond to a domestic violence incident, which the last time I checked the stats is approximately 70% of calls for service is DV related incidents, when they take action and the perpetrator is. Required to leave the house, there is actually no crisis accommodation for the perpetrator. When you're looking at that and there's probably different opinions around the fact that they're the perpetrator. You know, what we should be doing for them, but there's so much evidence that supports providing them extra. Providing them the same amount of support when it comes to housing. Otherwise, the closest accommodation for. Crisis accommodation for the perpetrator is Maryborough. And what we find is they are more likely to breach their temporary or domestic. Violence order because there is nowhere for them to be. And it goes back to a human element. That I want to speak on. Everyone has the right, in my opinion, to have a roof over their head, regardless of what they've done in their life. This is a national issue and something that I'm really glad Councillor Finzel has brought to the table today.