THE federal government must recommit to funding the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness.
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The scheme's funding, which helps support programs for the country's homeless, expires on June 30 of this year.
The federal government has made no announcement on whether the scheme will continue.
If not renewed, it will send some of Bendigo's welfare providers into overdrive.
While Haven; Home, Safe, do not receive funding from the scheme, chief executive Ken Marchingo said the affordable housing provider would feel added pressures as demand for its services increased.
If not renewed, it will send some of Bendigo's welfare providers into overdrive.
"We know unemployment is peaking; we know there is a war on welfare from the federal government's perspective and we know there are fewer jobs for unskilled people which washes back onto low income families," he said.
Providers deserve certainty. Homelessness is an issue that runs deep in communities.
It may not always be visible but it is there, lying below the surface and without supportive funding schemes it will continue to bubble away.
The Abbott government must recommit.