Homeless service providers say the Covid-19 crisis has created an unparalleled opportunity to end rough sleep in Australia, and are calling on state and federal governments to take immediate action. In the early weeks of the pandemic, most states and territories made the unprecedented move to get the rough sleepers off the streets and into hotel and motel accommodation in order to protect them, and the community, from the virus. More than 5,000 people were placed in accommodation across the capital cities. While Australia has nearly 120,000 people experiencing homelessness, according to the most recent census, only around 8,200 are rough sleepers, meaning the hotel quarantine program provided shelter for more than 60% of this population. However this accommodation is temporary and, as restrictions ease, state governments have been left with a choice: invest heavily in social housing or send thousands back onto the street in the middle of winter. “We will see rough sleeping increase if the government doesn’t do something about social housing,” said Karyn Walsh, the chief executive of the Micah Projects in Queensland. Graham Brown, the chief executive of Baptist Care South Australia, said it was imperative to act now. “There is no better time than right now. We have a jump start,” he said. “We could actually stabilise these people. The people that would have been sleeping rough have been able to sleep safely without worry. They are better able to engage with case management. When people are in crisis they can’t think long term, but when they don’t have the fear and anxiety of where they are going to sleep, they can take steps towards grasping life opportunities. “This should be used as a way to stimulate the economy.” Some states have already announced funding to help provide permanent accommodation for rough sleepers. NSW is putting up $36m to secure homes from the private rental market for several hundred of those in hotel accommodation, and to provide them with access to services. While this will not guarantee housing for all 1,200 people who were accommodated in hotels in NSW, it is a significant boost to the state’s previous programs which only placed 200 rough sleepers in accommodation each year. “Throughout the Covid-19 response, we’ve worked hard to keep rough sleepers safe. Now we’re working to get them into homes with the support they need to rebuild their lives,” said NSW communities minister Gareth Ward. “The response will be intensive and pack many months of work into just weeks as we strive to transition people from temporary accommodation into secure housing.” The Queensland housing minister, Mick de Brenni, has suggested the government would continue to support the rough sleepers, but no announcements have been made. “Hotel/motel accommodation was used as an immediate response, and ultimately, we will use this as an opportunity to support these Queenslanders into suitable, permanent accommodation,” he told the ABC. While Victoria is yet to announce any specific longer-term housing options for those currently in hotels, last week it invested another $9.8m to keep the hotel housing system in operation until at least the end of July. “We have no reason not to be hopeful,” said Jenny Smith, the chief executive of the Victorian Council for Homeless Persons. The ACT and the Northern Territory have been slower to act, with no funding specifically allocated so far. Western Australia’s response to rough sleeping during the height of the pandemic was minimal, with a trial placing just 30 rough sleepers in hotels. This had strict self-isolating requirements attached and the program was abandoned after more than half the recipients dropped out. But this week the WA government announced it was accelerating its “Housing First Homelessness Initiative”, an investment of $34.5m. The five-year program will mean 20 individuals or families are housed each year. The future of the more than 300 South Australian rough sleepers is still somewhat unclear. The SA premier announced a $20m homelessness prevention fund before the pandemic, and while the government is seeking expressions of interest from service providers for the first $6m of that funding it’s unclear how much will be used specifically to house rough sleepers. WA, Victoria and Tasmania have allocated hundreds of millions in funding to build more public housing units, but David Pearson, the chief executive of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness, said this was not targeted enough to end rough sleeping. “Public housing gets allocated on a really ad hoc basis … particularly for rough sleepers. Because of the chronic nature of what is happening, they are actually deprioritised because they’re too hard to deal with. It’s equivalent to you walking into an emergency department and the nurse goes ‘Right, I’m gonna take on the stubbed toe over the person having cardiac arrest because I’m having a bad day’,” Pearson said. The alliance has called for the commonwealth to invest $49.4m to provide subsided rental housing for 2,500 of the 5,000 people in hotels. Pearson said Australia should be aiming for “functional zero” rough sleeping, where public housing becomes available at the same rate people enter homelessness. “It costs us more in health costs, in policing costs, in emergency accommodation costs to continue to leave them sleeping rough than it does to provide them permanent supportive housing, and it’s just nuts that we don’t do it,” he said. “We have got 8,000 people sleeping rough, we just sheltered 5,000. It is an eminently achievable goal.”