Policy Advocacy Report: Addressing Homelessness in Australia-2024

This advocacy report delves into policy changes aimed at addressing homelessness in Australia, focusing on the role of non-government organizations in driving these changes. It provides an overview of relevant policy change theories such as the Agenda-Setting theory, Advocacy Coalition Framework, and Regime theory, alongside a scan of government departments, NGOs, research organizations, and peak bodies involved in the policy area. The report justifies the need for policy change, particularly highlighting the 'All Paths Lead to a Home' strategy in Western Australia, and proposes a beginning plan for policy change. It emphasizes the importance of providing adequate, safe, and affordable housing, and permanent supportive housing to improve living standards and reduce taxpayer burden. Desklib offers this report as part of its collection of study resources for students.

Advocacy report

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Overview of relevant theories of policy change..........................................................................4
A brief scan of responsible government departments, non-government organisations, research
organisations and peak bodies working in the policy area of ‘homelessness’ and the policy
change that they are working on..................................................................................................7
An aspect of policy change and justification for that change......................................................8
A beginning plan for policy change.............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Executive Summary
This report is based on the development of an advocacy approach for a non-government
organisation that would contribute to the policy change to a given policy area. The concept of
advocacy is concerned with any action that recommends, speaks in favour of, supports or
defends, argues for a case or pleads on behalf of others. This process seeks to make sure that all
the people within the society are able to have their voice heard on the particular issues which are
significant to them. This report covers all the aspects that are associated with a policy change and
along with it, there will be an overview of the relevant theories of the policy change. In this
report, there will be comments regarding with the different types of ideologies such as liberal,
neo-liberal or social democratic. Moreover, the peak body organisations that are working for the
issues concerned with the given policy area will also going to be discussed. This report also
covers the recent policy changes as well as efforts from the Government of Australia regarding
the given policy area.

INTRODUCTION
The term advocacy is the action of speaking on the behalf or in assistance of another
person, place or thing. In context to non-government organisations, the concept of advocacy is
considered as a process that uses strategic information in order to change the policies which are
influencing the lives of the disadvantaged individuals. Within this report, Action on Poverty is a
non-government organisation within Australia and the policy area of “homelessness” is taken
into consideration for demonstrating different aspects of this report. There will be an overview of
the various theories of policy change that are relevant with the concept (Albert and et.al., 2021).
Along with this, there will be a brief scan of responsible government as well as non-government
departments, peak bodies and research organisations that are working in the given policy area
with a description on policy changes they are working on. Furthermore, there will be a
justification of policy change and a beginning plan will also be there for that policy change.
MAIN BODY
The process of advocacy identifies the problems, develop the situations, build the support and
bring the issues, political and solutions for ensuring that desired change takes place. Policy
advocacy is associated with the process of negotiating as well as mediating a dialogue through
which affected networks, opinion leaders and decision makers take the ownership of the ideas,
evidence and proposals along with taking corrective action on them. Effective policy advocacy
helps in developing the capacity of an organisation like Action on Poverty in order to attain the
greatest good for the large number of people it is serving. Involvement in the policy advocacy
can also create the awareness of the mission of an organisation, mobilise its constituents and
capture positive attention (Augsberger and et.al., 2019). The aim of this concept is to make
things happen in the most possible empowering and direct ways.
Overview of relevant theories of policy change
Policy change is said to be the incremental shift within the existing structures of the
policies or new and innovative policies. Changes in the policies can facilitate an organisation
such as Action on Poverty in addressing the future as well as present issues of public within the
Australia. There are various theories of policy change and some of them are discussed as under
in context to Action on Poverty:

 Policy Windows or Agenda-Setting theory: This is the classic theory of John
Kingdon’s in order to set the agenda attempts for clarifying that why some of the issues
get specific attention in the process of policy and others do not. As per this theory there
are three streams in relation to the policy system and these are problems, politics as well
as policies. This kind of theory states that for enhancing likelihood that an issue will get
serious attention or be put on the policy agenda, minimum two of the streams are required
to be converge at a critical moment or policy windows (Hughes and Malone, 2020).
These are considered as windows of opportunity which arise when there is a chance for
the policy change. The application of this theory within Action on Poverty to advocacy
includes promising strategies in which impacting problem is there are it also includes
developing policy options like monitoring indicators, framing issues, etc. as well as
influencing political climate such as demonstrations, coalition building and many more.
Apart from promising strategies, it also consists of organisations and advocates requiring
proper capacity for recognising and creating policy windows along with responding
towards them in an appropriate way.
 Coalition theory or Advocacy Coalition Framework: This theory was developed by
Paul Sabatier as well as Hank Jenkins Smith. Such type of theory of policy change
proposes that people have core beliefs regarding the policy areas such as seriousness
about problems, its causes, ability of society to solve them and promising solutions to
address it. Non-Government Organisations such as Action on Poverty that use such kind
of theory have faith that the policy change happens through coordinating actions between
organisation and people outside government with the identical core policy beliefs. The
application of this theory in respect to advocacy is that coalitions can recognise and reach
out for diversion of groups with the same core beliefs of policy. Coalitions crucially
explore as well as pursue different avenues to change for identifying a way that will bring
fruit (Jones and Brown, 2020). The promising strategies in application of this theory
consist of impacting like-minded decision-makers in order to make the changes in policy,
influencing public opinion through mass media, altering incumbents in different positions
of power, changing behaviours of decision-maker through boycotts or demonstrations or
changing perceptions regarding policies through the process of research as well as
exchange of information.

 Regime theory: Such type of theory is greatly attributed to Clarence Stone an states that
government must work in a collective manner with the private as well as public interests
in order to meet its objectives and results. These collective groups are termed as regimes
and are considered as informal and formal groups which coalesce around a shared, broad
agenda. Such regime a gives a venue to develop agendas of policies, lend support to
agendas of policy, bring extra allies for specific policies along with mitigating opposition
(McArthur and et.al., 2018). The application of this theory of policy change to advocacy
within the non-government organisation like Action on Poverty includes working within
the regime system for impacting the members of a regime or becoming part of it. It also
includes development of an alternate regime for developing new alternative coalitions
with the comparable capabilities that can perform together for creating same efficiencies
for cost of transaction. Overthrowing of the regime is also involved in the application of
this theory to advocacy. An opposition approach is unlikely to generate access to present
regime but may be necessary for overthrowing the regime as policy-makers power to
govern is influenced through developing broader dissatisfaction. Likewise, advocates can
be involved in litigation for changing policies under which the regime should operate.
Ideologies:
 Social-democratic: It is a political philosophy which helps political democracy in a
socially owned economy having a specific focus on economist democracy, worker’s
self-management within socialist economy or other form of decentralised planned
socialist economy and workplace democracy.
 Liberal: Liberalism is a moral as well as political philosophy on the basis of the
rights of a person, liberty, consent of the government and equality before law (Shanks
and SoRelle, 2021).
 Neo-liberal: It is a contemporarily that is used to refer to market-oriented reform
policies like deregulating capital markets, eliminating price controls, lowering trade
barriers as well as minimising especially through austerity and privatisation, state
impact within economy.

A brief scan of responsible government departments, non-government organisations, research
organisations and peak bodies working in the policy area of ‘homelessness’ and the policy
change that they are working on
There are a large number of organisations that are working in the policy area of
homelessness and some of these organisations are mentioned as follows:
Government departments: StreetSmart Australia is a kind of government organisation
within the Australia that helps in driving the communities support through the grassroot
campaigns as well as assisting other short niche community organisations with funds and grants
(Smith and et.al., 2020). These are located in Melbourne as well as nationally increased over $3
million and have assisted fund over 1,100 projects. The policy change that the respective
government organisation working on is Projecy-based rental assistance, public housing operating
funds, public housing capital grants, tenant-based rental assistance.
Non-government organisations: Organisations such as Mission Australia is a national
non-denominational Christian Charity that facilitates Australians in moving towards the
independence . Their role is to minimise the homelessness consists of specialist support services
which enable the people for avoiding as well as escaping homelessness, crisis and transitional
accommodation along with affordable and social housing. The policy change within Mission
Australia for homelessness includes Mission Australia housing, research and advocacy,
homelessness preservation, sector collaboration and many others.
Research organisations: Salvation Army within Australia has continued to be a great
contributor towards social good of the respective country. It is helping the homeless crisis within
country and Red Cross has a large number of programs for facilitating people in maintaining
their housing as well as avoiding homelessness and those who are currently experiencing
homelessness. The policy change on which these organisations are working on consists of
homestay, homelessness Accommodation Support Service, Private Tenancy Support, Housing
support mental health service (Organisations Helping to Reduce Homelessness in Australia,
2022).
Peak bodies: Peak bodies like St.Vincent De Paul have facilitated over many years for the
people who are experiencing homelessness within Australia as well as the people who are close
to being homeless. Such organisation is having some of the amazing executives and campaigns
in order to increase money like CEO Sleepout campaign and the campaign for pressuring the

territory governments and state for resolving the crisis of homeless in the respective country. The
policy change on which the respective organisation is working on includes providing
counselling, mediation, group work as well as practical support to the whole family.
An aspect of policy change and justification for that change
Homelessness gets solved through offering an adequate supply of safe, affordable and
appropriate housing for those people who need it, supportive housing with tenancies having
intentional community services. All Paths Lead to a Home: is a Western Australia’s 10-Year
Strategy on Homelessness 2020-30 which is an entire community plan that has set the direction
for all the levels of the government, community sector as well as business in responding to as
well as preventing homelessness within Western Australia (Zhang, 2018). A whole-of-
community strategy for improving the results for Vulnerable Western Australians experiencing,
or at risk of, homelessness. Action plan 2020-25 is the first two five-year plan that will help in
driving the implementation of strategy and facilitates it in achieving its consequences.
From above discussion, it is justified that the policy of All Paths Lead to a Home is worth
changing because it helps in influencing the availability of the resources that are concerned with
the health, crime and safety and workforce. It is also justified that providing permanent
supportive housing to the homeless community saves the taxpayer money. This will help in
improving the living standards of the people of the country and create the economy of country
more effective and better.
A beginning plan for policy change
As a front-line case worker in a non-government organisation Action on Poverty based in
Australia, an individual would work with friends, family members and relatives within the
sector. Campaigns like Housing First, Support for Australian Citizens, Scrap the Vagrancy Act,
etc. are some of the types of campaigns for improving homelessness. Among these campaigns
and strategies, Housing First would suit Action on Poverty and policy change of All Paths Lead
to a Home.
For the policy advocacy plan, an individual would target peak bodies and government
organisations that will provide funding within the respective organisation.

CONCLUSION
From above explanation of the report, it has been concluded that the process of advocacy
fosters social justice, equality, human rights and social inclusion. Within this report, the policy
area of homelessness has been taken into consideration and various aspects have been discussed
in relation to this. This report has covered the description of different theories of the policy
change that helps the organisation in addressing the issues that are faced by them while
performing functions. In this report, there has been a brief of responsible governmental and other
departments working on homelessness concept and their policy change. Moreover, this report has
included an aspect of policy change along with the justification as well as beginning plan for the
respective concept that facilitates organisation in achieving greater level of efficiency.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Albert and et.al., 2021. An Array of Influential Factors for Analyzing Policy
Advocacy. American Journal of Evaluation, 10982140211005547.
Augsberger and et.al., 2019. Youth participation in policy advocacy: Examination of a multi-
state former and current foster care youth coalition. Children and Youth Services Review.
107. 104491.
Hughes, T. L., and Malone, C. M., 2020. Engaging in political leadership and public policy
advocacy. In Handbook of university and professional careers in school psychology (pp.
482-492). Routledge.
Jones, S., and Brown, B., 2020. Changing the narrative: UNCF and its role in policy advocacy
for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Interest Groups & Advocacy. 9(4). 451-
469.
McArthur and et.al., 2018. A high prevalence of food insecurity among university students in
Appalachia reflects a need for educational interventions and policy advocacy. Journal of
nutrition education and behaviour. 50(6). 564-572.
Shanks, D., and SoRelle, M. E., 2021. The paradox of policy advocacy: philanthropic
foundations, public interest groups, and second-order policy feedback effects. Interest
Groups & Advocacy. 10(2). 137-157.
Smith and et.al., 2020, November. The use of faculty policy teams for advancing policy
advocacy and colleagueship. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 582-588).
Zhang, C., 2018. Nongovernmental organizations’ policy advocacy and government
responsiveness in China. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly. 47(4). 723-744.
Online:
Organisations Helping to Reduce Homelessness in Australia, 2022[Online] Available
Through:<https://flatmate.com/blog/organisations-helping-homeless-australia/>