Wednesday 29th August 2012-08-29
Micah Projects has welcomed the bipartisan support shown by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments at the official opening of Brisbane Common Ground in South Brisbane today, where both Federal Minister for Housing, Homelessness and Small Business Brendan O’Connor and Queensland Minister for Housing and Public Works Bruce Flegg spoke at the opening ceremony.
The new development, which provides 146 units of social and affordable housing, came into being as a direct result of the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness and involved close co-operation between all levels of Government, the business community and the community sector.
Minister Flegg’s Dept of Public Works project-managed the construction of Brisbane Common Ground, as part of the Commonwealth Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan.
Says Karyn Walsh, Coordinator of Micah Projects, “Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has always been a strong supporter of the Common Ground concept, as has local MP Kevin Rudd MP who, as Prime Minister, got behind this initiative as a solution to homelessness.
“Brisbane Common Ground also received incredible community support,” says Karyn, “and I’d like to express our sincere gratitude to the countless people who gave freely of their time, energy and resources to make it happen.”
In his opening speech, Minister Flegg spoke forcefully of his commitment to the concept of supportive housing.
“Since becoming Housing Minister,” says Karyn Walsh, “Mr Flegg has shown a keen interest in the model of supportive housing as a critical success factor, not only in ending homelessness, but also in the delivery of effective social housing to prevent people falling back into homelessness.”
Later this week the Council of Australian Governments(COAG) is meeting in Perth to discuss the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, at a critical time when neither the Australian nor State Governments have recommitted to continue the agreement past June 30th 2013.
Speaking of COAG, Karyn Walsh says, “To date there has not been enough emphasis on the success at a program level for initiatives such as Common Ground Support Services, and Street to Home services which have reduced rough sleeping in Brisbane by 30% and provided greatly needed and cost effective prevention services for families and individuals.”
Karyn Walsh went on to say, “Micah Projects sees homelessness as a serious social problem in our society, which usually leads to more expensive public interventions such as police action, detention, mental health admission and emergency department attendance.”
Photo Caption: Karyn Walsh, Coordinator of Micah Projects, welcomes Bruce Flegg, Queensland Minister for Housing and Public Works, to the official opening of Brisbane Common Ground in South Brisbane today.
