Media coverage - SMH: Bold approach to homelessness will take 70 most vulnerable off streets

Seventy people who call the streets and underpasses of inner Sydney home will be put into permanent housing under a new scheme, as figures show a jump in the number of homeless.

Platform 70, a project supported by state and federal governments, will involve placing the rough sleepers from Woolloomooloo into heavily subsidised private rental accommodation, to be managed by community housing providers and supported by a range of social services.

Participants in the $2.8 million program have been identified by outreach program Way2Home.

Many of them suffer from a mental illness and substance or gambling addictions.

The Community Services Minister, Pru Goward, said the program was a bold approach that would not only provide housing but also address the issues which brought people to the streets.

''It will also reduce our reliance on high-cost options like crisis and transitional accommodation,'' she said.

The plan was announced a day after a City of Sydney homelessness count found about 118 people were sleeping out in the Woolloomooloo area, a rise of almost 40 per cent on last year.

This winter has seen an unusually high number of deaths among Sydney's homeless, according to Daniel Strickland from Mission Australia's Missionbeat service.

Based on information gathered by his and other homeless agencies, at least 10 inner Sydney homeless people have died in the past two months - a higher rate than he has seen in his nine years at Missionbeat.

The worrying trend was not necessarily down to the cold weather but to substance abuse, chronic disease as well as assault, suicide and accidents, Mr Strickland said. A list of 70 people for the new project has already been drawn up, Sylvia Grant, NSW state manager of NGO Neami, said. The organisation runs Way2Home and will visit tenants and provide support once they have been housed.

The community housing provider Bridge Housing will take on the leases from private landlords and sublet them to the clients, who will pay about 25 per cent of the market rent. Some will remain in the inner city but others will be helped return to their home suburbs or towns, where they will be matched with appropriate support services.

The Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, said the new project was "the most significant action on homelessness in decades".

She blamed recent increases in the number of people sleeping rough in Sydney on rising rents.

"It's very easy in Sydney if you do have an addiction or you're struggling with rent to end up here," she said.

This article was originally posted in the Sydney Morning Herald