Southern Tasmania's only homeless outreach service at maximum capacity

The only homelessness outreach program in southern Tasmania is a team of just three people who search for rough sleepers and connect them to essential services.

Street 2 Home used to operate statewide but had to close in the north and north-west because of insufficient funding.

Street 2 Home is pushing for more funding to cater to what it says is a growing number of Tasmanians sleeping rough.

It is eight degrees on a chilly Tuesday morning, and the Salvation Army's Street 2 Home outreach team has driven along an off-road dirt track in southern Tasmanian bushland.

They are looking for Effie*, a woman living in a tent with her German shepherd, Gus.

Street 2 Home is the only homelessness outreach program in southern Tasmania that searches for people sleeping rough, asks if they need help, and connects them to essential services.

The program says it is struggling to keep up with demand, as the numbers of people coming onto the street outpace those coming off.

With extra funding, it said the program could expand state-wide, having recently closed both its north and north-west operations for financial reasons.

With a life of renting under her belt, Effie* was not worried about finding somewhere to live after being evicted from her home.

"I was unsuccessful for every house that I applied for," she said.

She said the difficulty of finding a home or emergency accommodation with a dog meant she had no choice but to pitch a tent and was soon noticed by a passer-by who contacted Street 2 Home.

"I've got the hand warmers and body warmers … my darling friend from [The Salvation Army] brings me those," Effie said.

For a region with roughly 2,500 people experiencing homelessness, the Street 2 Home team of just three people is stretched to capacity.

Program lead and outreach worker Chris Allen said many other homelessness services were based online, and this put the burden on the individual to seek out help themselves.

"[People sleeping rough] might not have heard about a lot of the programs and a lot of the services that are designed to actually help them," he said.

"Most of them won't know how to use a phone, or they don't have internet. They don't know how to look up those services and find them."

What used to be a state-wide operation was scaled back to the south due to a lack of funding.

In September last year, the program shut its doors in northern Tasmania, and in June this year, the north-west met the same fate.

There is no limit on the number of cases or people the team supports, but this leaves it stretched thin.

"The more people we come across, the less time we can spend with each individual," Mr Allen said.

He said success stories were becoming rarer over the years.

"We've had fewer [people getting into housing] this year than we had last year," he said.

Housing waitlist times in the state have reached roughly 1.7 years, as of August this year.

Mr Allen said the focus was on making it as comfortable as possible for the person experiencing homelessness, while they worked to help them find housing.

"If our details are attached to [an application], we'll go out, we'll get [the person] on the phone … and we'll make sure they make it to those appointments, so they don't miss that property," Mr Allen said.

Homelessness Australia director Catherine Robinson said outreach services offered "critical" human connection that online services lacked.

By placing the burden on the person experiencing homelessness to research services themselves, Professor Robinson said this could deter them from getting help.

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of homeless Tasmanians increased 45 per cent.

But Professor Robinson said homelessness was often invisible, and this number could be higher.

A new University of Tasmania report, co-authored by Professor Robinson, measured the number of rough sleepers in the state, including people on streets, in tents and cars, on private land like driveways, or in sheds and garages.

A total of 944 Tasmanians were sleeping rough when they first accessed a specialist homelessness service, in the financial year ending 2023.

For 74 per cent of these people, it was not the first time they had slept rough.

Insufficient affordable housing and homeless accommodation, as well as mental illness, were some of the main contributing factors, according to the report.

It recommended better resourcing, more shelter for rough sleepers, and more closely involving mental health care in homelessness services.

Despite struggling to keep up with the demand for services, Mr Allen says he is proud of the work the team does.

"When they see someone in need, they don't let it go," he said.