In July 2023, Launch Housing and the City of Yarra launched Yarra Zero. Like other Advance to Zero projects, Yarra Zero is working to end rough sleeping homelessness by connecting with and getting to know each person sleeping rough in the community and adding them to the local ‘By Name List’.

Knowing everyone by name, understanding their needs and providing an integrated service system response across the LGA helps people find and sustain housing.

The Yarra Zero team is truly multidisciplinary, made up of representatives from:

• Launch Housing
• Yarra City Council
• Bolton Clarke
• Ngwala Willumbong Aboriginal Corporation
• cohealth
• North Richmond Community Health
• St Vincent’s Hospital Clarendon Homeless Outreach Psychiatric Service
• St Mary’s House of Welcome
• St Mark’s Community Centre
• Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

We met with the Yarra Zero service coordination team to hear about the benefits of working together and their plans to continue building relationships in the area.

The benefits of working together

“You’ve now got multiple agencies who all talk together…What you see now is the modern way of doing housing” – Mark, St Mary’s House of Welcome

The Yarra Zero team feel a shared responsibility for delivering outcomes for clients. They work together to follow up with clients, find referral pathways, and ensure they deliver the right services at the right time for clients.

“It prevents people from falling through the gaps or the cracks of the service system… We’ve been able to support a number of people who have been long term rough sleeping in the City of Yarra into permanent housing”. Jess, Launch Housing Rough Sleeper Initiative

Service coordination means people are not endlessly bouncing between agencies

Working together also means being able to achieve outcomes quickly, especially for clients with very complex needs. One client was known to many service providers in the area and had previously exhibited challenging behaviours when presenting to agencies. The client had previously accessed health services through North Richmond Community Health and had attended St Mary’s House of Welcome. By members meeting regularly to discuss shared clients and their needs, the team were able to coordinate services to get the client into housing in Richmond.

Without this coordination, this client would have continued to bounce between agencies because of the complexity of their needs and difficulties their behaviour at times presented.

Vital to the approach is the wraparound support for each client one they are housed, another benefit from once disconnected organisations working together. Once a client enters secure housing, one Yarra Zero team member observed that sometimes they are at even higher risk of losing their housing if they don’t have the skills to live independently.

Through working together to provide holistic support for clients before and after they find secure housing, supporting them to build their skills to live independently, this collaborative approach is making significant progress towards ending rough sleeping homelessness. Since July 2023, 93 people have been identified as sleeping rough in the LGA and added to the By Name List. Last year 31 of these people were housed in stable permanent accommodation, and by the end of the year 52 people remained active on the By Name List.

“As we all know, homelessness isn’t just having a roof over someone’s head – once housed it’s all that goes with it… it’s what we add to it for them to be able to maintain that property.” Nicholas, St Vincents Hospital

What’s next for Yarra Zero?

Continuing to build relationships with other service providers and to keep working on fixing the gaps in the service system are key priorities for the Yarra Zero team.

Building relationships with community housing providers in Yarra is a huge focus. Creating pathways with community housing providers is central to ensuring clients can get secure housing.

Finding referral pathways for clients is also a priority so that clients can access the right supports at the right time.

The team are optimistic about the future.