Submission: Manufactured Home Estates, Caravan Parks, Camping Grounds and Movable Dwellings – Consultation on Proposed Amendments

There are more than 35,000 people who experience homelessness in NSW each year, more than 57,000 people on the waiting list for social housing and less than 1% of rentals are affordable for low-income earners.1,2,3 The homelessness service system is overstretched and under-resourced and less than 50% of people can get the accommodation support they need through specialist homelessness services.4 T. [...] Limits to the installation of tents outside camping grounds We have a number of concerns regarding the proposed limit of 30 days for short-term use of tents outside of camping grounds. [...] We also note that the NSW Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places is founded on the principle that ‘People experiencing homelessness have the same rights as any member of the public to be in public places.’6 This protocol offers guidance regarding how and when a person experiencing homelessness should be approached, acknowledging the rights, concerns and wellbeing of people experiencing home. [...] We urge that all reforms carefully consider how to provide the flexibility for people to make choices and have control over their accommodation in the wake of disaster events, while ensuring that people are kept safe and that health and wellbeing is not compromised. [...] We look forward to ongoing collaborative approaches to reform that consider the needs and wellbeing of some of the most marginalised groups of people in the most dire need for good quality, rapid housing solutions.