EXTENDED support services, as well as additional meals and a temporary sleeping area, will be made available to homeless people disrupted by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in October.
Department of Child Protection director general Terry Murphy said $112,500 had been allocated towards ensuring services were available 24/7 during the event.
He said it was difficult to estimate the number of people expected to access the services as the rough sleeper population in the inner city was highly mobile.
“The response developed for the inner-city area during CHOGM allows for meals for up to 70 people and a temporary sleeping area for 30 people,” Mr Murphy said.
“It is important that people sleeping rough in Perth are not negatively impacted.”
He said the funding would be used by the Street to Home program – which involves eight non-government specialist homeless services – to extend the hours of outreach and housing support services.
Mr Murphy said Uniting Care West’s Tranby Day Centre would provide the additional 24-hour services and arrange necessary security in the area to make sure it was safe, providing storage for personal belongings and rostering staff to provide 24-hour coverage from the Street to Home Mobile Clinical Outreach Team.
“Staff from other Street to Home service providers will support the 24-hour response and be rostered at Tranby Day Centre over the CHOGM period,” he said.
“Health and Public Mental Health Services from South Metropolitan and North Metropolitan areas will provide 24- hour support to Street to Home service providers.”