Beyond Crisis: Reflecting on the NSW Launch of National Homelessness Week

On Monday, 3 August, our Founder and CEO, Matthew Rasheed, attended Beyond Crisis: Reimagining Our Homelessness Response, the official Homelessness NSW launch of National Homelessness Week NSW 2026, held at NSW Parliament House.

The event brought together leaders from across housing, homelessness, health, justice and community services for a timely and important conversation: how do we move beyond crisis management and build a homelessness system that prevents homelessness before it occurs?

A Ten-Year Vision, From the Top

The launch opened with remarks from Rose Jackson, NSW Minister for Housing and Homelessness, who acknowledged that while rough sleeping has continued to rise, targeted investment is beginning to "bend the curve." She outlined the NSW Government's ten-year vision to make homelessness rare, brief and non-repeated, backed by a $5 billion social housing investment and a $130 million crisis housing fund, and committed to more humane, integrated reform across health, justice and care systems.

Uncle Michael West, a member of the Stolen Generation and cultural educator, followed with a powerful call for dignity: a reminder that in a wealthy nation, street homelessness is a moral failure we have the means to fix. He spoke to the need for culturally respectful, holistic approaches to transitional housing that are sensitive to mental health and lived experience.

A Panel of Sector Leaders

The discussion panel, Reimagining Our Crisis System, was chaired by Dom Rowe, CEO of Homelessness NSW, and brought together voices from across the sector:

• Annabelle Daniel OAM – CEO, Women's Community Shelters

• Laurie Leigh – CEO, Bridge Housing Limited

• Erin Longbottom – National Director of Homelessness, St Vincent's Health Australia

• Marisa Moliterno – Advocacy, Research & Policy, Community Restorative Centre

• Kristie Burge – Founder & Executive Director, Bunmabunmarra Services

  
  

Each panellist brought a distinct lens to the conversation:

Annabelle Daniel argued for a gendered approach to homelessness policy, noting that domestic violence is the primary driver of homelessness for women, accounting for the vast majority of presentations across her network. She pointed to the value of data in identifying at-risk groups, such as older women on low incomes, and to "meanwhile use" of underoccupied properties as a fast, practical lever for more crisis housing.

Laurie Leigh made the case that secure social housing is the bedrock everything else is built on, but stressed that political will needs to extend beyond funding new housing stock to funding the ongoing support services that help people stay housed.

Erin Longbottom reframed homelessness as a health emergency, noting that people often have significant contact with the health system in the lead-up to becoming homeless, a missed opportunity for early intervention. She advocated for embedding housing and support services directly into health settings like hospitals.

Marisa Moliterno turned attention to the justice system, highlighting that around half of the people leaving NSW prisons each year do so without a home to go to. She called out siloed funding and stigma as key barriers, and proposed justice reinvestment, redirecting the cost of imprisonment into housing and support, as a smarter, more cost-effective approach.

Kristie Burge spoke to the dramatic overrepresentation of Aboriginal people experiencing homelessness, tracing this back to colonisation and intergenerational trauma. She called for genuinely person-centred, culturally safe and community-led responses, with long-term funding that allows for real "through-care" rather than short-term fixes.

The session closed with reflections from Rebecca Kingston, CEO of Homes NSW, who reinforced the themes of prevention, a gendered lens, data-driven coordination between systems, local collaboration, and the importance of embedding lived experience directly into policy design.

Why National Homelessness Week NSW Matters

The discussion comes at a critical time. Demand for homelessness services continues to rise across NSW, and the numbers shared throughout the day underscored just how structural the problem is, from the disproportionate impact of domestic violence on women, to the roughly 50% of people leaving prison with nowhere to live, to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal communities shaped by generations of systemic disadvantage.

The launch also tied into Homelessness NSW's broader "A Place to Call Home and the Support to Keep It" campaign, which is calling on the NSW Government to:

• Increase homelessness services funding by 50%, helping shift the system from crisis response to prevention

• Grow social housing by 10,000 homes each year, until social housing reaches 10% of all housing stock

  
  

Homelessness NSW's campaign video, featuring real stories of people navigating housing insecurity, is a powerful reminder of why this work matters during National Homelessness Week NSW and beyond. It's not just about statistics; it's about people, families and the everyday reality of housing instability.

A Moving Moment at Parliament House

Alongside the panel, Matt also had the chance to view "This Is Who I Am," a powerful photographic exhibition created by Sydney Secondary College's Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community, on display in the halls of Parliament House. Each portrait captured a young person holding up their own words: their pride, their culture, and their dreams for the future.

It was a fitting reminder that conversations about housing and homelessness are ultimately about people, identity and the futures we want to help build.

Beyond the Panel

Following the discussion, attendees joined networking drinks — an opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the housing, homelessness, health, government and advocacy sectors, and to mark the beginning of National Homelessness Week NSW together.

Our Takeaway

What stood out most from the day was how consistently every speaker, from the Minister, to Uncle Michael West, to each panelist, pointed to the same conclusion: homelessness in NSW is a solvable problem, but solving it means shifting from crisis response to genuine prevention. That means more social housing, yes, but just as importantly, properly funded support services, better-integrated systems across health, justice and housing, and responses that are shaped by the people who understand these systems best, including those with lived experience.

This is a conversation close to home for us. At Residence Revival, we work alongside Support Coordinators, Allied Health Professionals, hospitals and community organisations to deliver practical, person-centred environmental supports that help people stay safely and sustainably housed. Erin Longbottom's point about the health system resonated strongly with us: the period around a hospital discharge is exactly when someone's home environment can determine whether they return to a safe, stable tenancy or spiral toward crisis. It's why hospital-to-home transition support is such a critical part of what we do, and why we take a trauma-informed, participant-centred approach to hoarding and squalor remediation, conditions that, left unaddressed, are a well-documented pathway to eviction and housing loss.

Home restoration work like this doesn't just affect the person living there, it affects the carers and family members supporting them too. If you'd like to read more on that side of the story, check out our related post, Supporting the Supporters: Celebrating Carer and Family Wellbeing During Home Restoration, which looks at how a home reset can ease pressure on the whole support network, not just the participant.

Prevention, as the panel made clear, isn't just about building more homes, it's about the wraparound support that helps people keep the homes they have. That's the gap we work to close every day, and conversations like this one reaffirm exactly why that work matters.

We're proud to have been part of the room for this launch, and we'll be following the "A Place to Call Home" campaign closely throughout National Homelessness Week NSW and beyond.

Want to add your voice? You can support the campaign by signing the Homelessness NSW petition, calling on the NSW Government to invest in prevention, not just crisis response.

Know someone who could use our support? If you're a Support Coordinator, Allied Health Professional, or community worker with a participant at risk of losing their tenancy, whether it's a hospital discharge on the horizon, a hoarding or squalor situation, or a home in need of a reset, we'd love to help. Refer a participant to Residence Revival or get in touch with our team to find out how we can support them.

National Homelessness Week 2026 runs from 3–9 August. To learn more about the "A Place to Call Home and the Support to Keep It" campaign, visit Homelessness NSW.

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