Recommendation 25

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission recommended the Victorian Government prioritise people living with mental illness in Victoria’s 10-year strategy for social and affordable housing.

It called on the Victorian Government to allocate a continuing substantial proportion of social and affordable housing to people living with mental illness during the next decade.

Further recommended reforms include:

• revise the Victorian Housing Register’s Special Housing Needs ‘priority access’ categories to include people living with mental illness, including people who need ongoing intensive treatment, care and support.
• ensure that the 2,000 dwellings assigned to Victorians living with mental illness in the Big Housing Build are delivered as supported housing and prioritised for people living with mental illness who require ongoing intensive treatment, care and support, with Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Services assisting with the selection process.
• in addition to the 2,000 dwellings, invest in a further 500 new medium-term (up to two years) supported housing places for young people aged between 18 to 25 who are living with mental illness and experiencing unstable housing or homelessness.

The Royal Commission also recommended that the supported housing homes for adults and young people living with mental illness are:

• delivered in a range of housing configurations. This includes stand-alone units, self-contained units with shared amenities and various forms of clustered independent units on a single-site property;
• appropriately located, provide for the requirements of people living with mental illness and are co-designed by Homes Victoria, representatives appointed by the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division and people with lived experience of mental illness; and
• accompanied by an appropriate level of integrated, multidisciplinary and individually tailored mental health and wellbeing treatment, care and support.

The Royal Commission recommended the Victorian Government periodically review the allocation of supported housing homes as part of new statewide and regional planning processes and audit the outcomes.

Update

The Information about this recommendation is being updated.

Please check back here for information updates.

The Victorian Government has committed to implementing all recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Rebuilding Victoria’s mental health system is a 10-year reform plan, with implementation being done in a staged and sequential way.

The 2021-22 Victorian State Budget invested $3.8 billion in mental health and wellbeing services and responding to the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

All work is focused on ensuring Victorians get the mental health treatment, care, and support they deserve.