Together Home
The Together Home Program is a $189 million investment by the NSW Government, funded across three tranches. It aims to support over 1,000 people street-sleeping across NSW into stable accommodation, linked to wraparound support. The two-year model also includes a proportion of high need packages to assist complex clients, an Aboriginal led model in the Central Coast and new supply component.
The goal of Together Home is to transition people onto a trajectory away from homelessness and into long-term stable housing, while improving participants overall personal wellbeing.
It is underpinned by Housing First principles and is being delivered across NSW by 18 Community Housing Providers (CHPs) that sub-contract the support component to Specialist Homelessness Services or other partners. Support providers work to coordinate and strengthen relationships between the various services involved in a person’s support plan, including disability supports.
Program Update
- All Together Home leasing / support services and high needs funding packages are exhausted and allocated. However, Homelessness NSW (HNSW) is still accepting and processing applications for one-off funding grants via participating Together Home CHPs and support providers.
- $11.3 million approved in the 2023-24 NSW Government budget to extend Tranche 3 clients.
- Funds will be allocated to participating CHPs on the same basis as previous Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 extensions. A portion will be allocated to Homelessness NSW to extend the capacity of additional high needs one-off funding grants.
- Tranche 1 and 2 clients are exiting the Program, although a proportion of these clients are being extended to help them achieve stability and independence.
- Tranche 3 clients are due to exit the 2-year program during 2024, depending on the date clients entered the program.
- The Program is being independently evaluated by AHURI and the final report, cost benefit analysis and case studies will be completed by June 2024.
Future of the Program
Future program funding will be informed by current evaluation findings and the model will be considered as part of a broader suite of Housing First initiatives within the new NSW Homelessness Strategy .
High Needs packages
Homelessness NSW is funded separately to manage the Together Home High Needs funding. If a participant has a high degree of complexity, Together Home providers make a referral to the High Needs Assessment Panel for High Needs package funding.
All 107 High Needs packages have been allocated. However, one off funding grants (OOFG) are available, and applications can be made through Together Home CHPs and support providers using the same process as for High Needs packages.
Further information can be found at Homelessness NSW.
Aboriginal-led model
On the Central Coast, DCJ has partnered with the local community to design and deliver an Aboriginal-led Together Home model. The Aboriginal-led model commenced in 2021 with 17 packages initially. It has since expanded to deliver an additional 18 leasing and wraparound support packages over two years (totaling 35 packages) in the Hunter Central Coast, following a further investment of $1.4 million through the NSW Homelessness Strategy (2018 -2023).
New Supply
The Together Home Transition Program is delivering new supply of around 280 dwellings, providing a transition to long term accommodation for Together Home clients.
This program is being delivered through using the Community Housing Innovation Fund (CHIF) approach with co-contributions from participating community housing providers.
Program Evaluation
The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and its partners at the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), University of New South Wales, are undertaking an implementation, economic and outcomes evaluation of Together Home. The Interim Implementation Report is available online. Their final report is due in mid 2024.
AHURI have also recently prepared a System Impacts Paper that provides additional information to the Together Home evaluation. The paper is to inform future program design and delivery of Housing First approaches for people sleeping rough.
Independent Together Home evaluation reports
On 2 August 2023 Pacific Link Housing, in collaboration with the University of Newcastle released a separately funded and independent research report titled "Together Home practitioners' perspectives on building resilience and relationships" (available online)
For more information on Together Home
Refer to the following program documentation for more information:
You can also email the Together Home mailbox at: togetherhome@dcj.nsw.gov.au
Page updated - April 2023