Alternative First Responders: Housing not hyper-policing

JEC Policy Officer Alannah Daly contributed to an article with the National Justice Project’s Alternative First Responders program.

‘Members of StreetCare, an advisory committee of people with lived experience of homelessness, [similarly] report that police practices often criminalise homelessness. People are frequently subjected to excessive and unjust policing, including searches, move-on orders and the confiscation and disposal of their belongings. These responses compound the challenges of people experiencing homelessness, while failing to address its root causes – namely the lack of affordable housing and the support to sustain it.’  (Alannah Daly, Justice and Equity Centre 2025) 

The crisis of housing and homelessness in Australia is set against a ‘background context that includes rapidly increasing housing prices, underinvestment in public and affordable housing, real-terms reduction in welfare benefits, the epidemic of domestic and family violence, and the lack of options outside the market for those on low incomes’(Human Rights Legal Centre, 2025). In addition to this, the failure to allocate adequate budget to homelessness services has resulted in services ‘struggling to meet the demand and as a result, are often required to make difficult decisions regarding who they are able to assist, and who must be turned away.’ (Alannah Daly, Justice and Equity Centre 2025) We must do better.