EXCLUSIVE
Inner-city homeless: Hospitals and the police force will bear the brunt of the $5 million cut to homelessness services. Photo: Kate Geraghty
Hospitals and police will be left bearing the brunt of a $5 million cut to inner-city homelessness services and the safety of vulnerable people put at risk, health experts say.
The Australian Medical Association NSW fears the decision, combined with cuts to federal homelessness funding and mooted GP co-payments, poses a threat to the health of the homeless community.
St Vincent’s Hospital in the inner city is already seeing patients evicted from refuges that are closing under a new government policy, called ”Going Home, Staying Home”, which is shifting resources from the city to the suburbs.
“These people are not going to disappear or go. They have become reliant on the services in the inner city”: St Vincent’s Health Australia head Toby Hall. Photo: Supplied
Tenders due to be awarded soon will move funding from services that cater for women with specific needs, such as mental illness, to generalist providers.