MIM HOOK, HOST: A federal announcement just recently around transitional and crisis homes for women escaping domestic violence, for young people facing homelessness, and the Federal Government is saying that it will build eight transitional crisis homes across two projects in Gippsland, one in Latrobe and one in South Gippsland. Josh Burns is a Federal Labor member and serves as the Special Envoy for Social Housing and Homelessness. Hi, Josh Burns.
JOSH BURNS, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SOCIAL HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS: Thank you so much for having me on, Mim.
HOOK: Josh Burns, what's proposed for … let's start with the Latrobe Valley.
BURNS: So, first of all, the problem is that for young people who are potentially in a violent home, it's very, very difficult to leave. There's not a lot of options for young people to be able to go and find a safe place to live, and especially if you're a little bit older and can’t access child protection services, there just isn’t a lot of specialized youth housing. But we also know that if we support a young person when they would otherwise be facing homelessness, it is the most impactful time where they can potentially turn their life around and not be in this constant cycle of homelessness. You know, they've faced a lot of trauma, they've faced a lot of difficulty in their life. It's not their fault, and what they need is a safe place to live and a chance to build their life, and that's why we're investing in homes right around the country. The first part of this is a $1 billion program - half of it's going to youth housing, and half of it for family violence housing.
HOOK: So Latrobe will be youth?
BURNS: La Trobe will be youth. So there'll be six homes in La Trobe.
HOOK: Now, will these be built new or will they be existing places that you will do up so that they suit this purpose?
BURNS: So, this is an acquisition. So it will take a little bit of time to make sure that they're appropriate for young people and often with some of the housing for young people, there's sort of common rooms. There's different areas that need to be built in. There's obviously got to be security and these sorts of things. I haven't seen the exact site. I haven't walked through it, but we want to make sure it's of a high quality to make sure the young people have somewhere safe and clean and appropriate to live.
HOOK: So, six places in Latrobe will be converted into housing for youth that need some crisis housing or temporary housing. How long will they be able to stay? Could it be up to a year or a couple of years if they need to?
BURNS: Yeah, so the crisis housing is usually for around eight to 12 weeks, but we also know that for especially a young person, we're not going to kick people out on the street if they don't have somewhere permanent. So these will be these will be for up to two years, and it'll depend on the young person, depend what their needs are, depend on where they are in their life, how old they are, what their circumstances are.
HOOK: Will these be staffed for the young people?
BURNS: So, this will be run by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing in the Victorian Government. So, they will be ensuring that young people will have access to staff, services, support services, those sorts of things. Because you know we also want to make sure that they can access education, access all the other things that they need to help rebuild their life.
HOOK: You're hearing from Josh Burns. He serves as the Special Envoy for social housing and homelessness with the Federal Labor Government. When will these six different crisis homes … I'm imagining there might be a bit of a sharehouse situation, or there's still some things to be decided. When will they be built by?
BURNS: As part of the funding, everything has to be finished by mid-2029. We expect these to be done sooner than that, and it will be as soon as we can get the State government to complete them and to sign all of the contracts. But the funding has been announced, and we are ready to make sure that these homes become available as soon as possible.
HOOK: So mid-2029, and the South Gippsland project?
BURNS: So, the South Gippsland project is for families or for people escaping family violence, and I can't go into the exact location of them, but they are they are going to be there for people who in the worst moment of their life need somewhere safe to go, and that this is also another partnership with the Victorian government Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
HOOK: You're hearing from Josh Burns now. We're coming up to the news, Josh Burns. I hope you don't mind me asking you a personal question. You're married to Georgie Purcell with the Animal Justice Party. We've had Georgie Purcell on ABC Gippsland a few times, especially around duck shooting season. We often have conversations here about how to have really healthy conversations and listen to each other. I imagine there's some robust differences and political conversations in your household, Josh Burns?
BURNS: Well, Georgie would say that you've given her an upgrade. We're not married. But you know, you never know your luck in the big city. But I'm very lucky to have Georgie as a partner. She's an incredible person, and yeah, we obviously come from different political backgrounds and different political parties, but you know we do share a lot of the same values and we do talk through things like any normal couple would. And I think it's really healthy and important for people to be able to talk through things and to be able to say what they believe and to listen to your partner.
And you know, of course, there are different things that that we come at from different angles. You know, Georgie grew up in the regions. I grew up in the city. I'm a Federal MP. She's a State MP. But we also have a lot in common, and a lot of the values that we see the world in are similar. I've learned a lot from Georgie. She's an incredible politician and someone who I really admire and think very highly of. She's unfortunately right most of the time, so it makes for usually something that I have to concede. But no, she's great, and yeah, I think the main thing is that we just try and talk through things, and I'm very lucky to have her as my partner.
HOOK: Josh Burns, thank you for your time on ABC Gippsland.