Quality – ensuring rights, respect and dignity for homeless people

This submission is made by the Homeless Persons’ Legal Service in response to the Options Paper prepared by the Homelessness Working Group of the Housing Ministers’ Conference released in February 2011. The submission comments on the following issues:

• The essential rights for homeless people which should be included in the National Homelessness Charter;
• The most effective strategies for ensuring that mainstream and allied services adopt the National Homelessness Charter;
• How to ensure complaint mechanisms for clients of homelessness services are effective, accessible and independent from services;
• The essential elements to be included within the National Quality Standards;
• The need for a mandatory, external assessment process for all mainstream and allied services, against the National Quality

Standards, to ensure external accountability for the quality of homelessness services. 

The HPLS submits that enforceable, rights-based National Quality Standards are necessary to drive continuous improvement in the quality of services delivered to homeless people.