President Anthony opened the meeting at 6.30 pm on 9 November 2020 with a rousing singing of Advance Australia Fair. Without the lead from John Thornton, the Club performed admirably and achieved a successful rendition scoring 7.5/10.
The meeting is still being streamed on Zoom so that you may engage in that manner. However, at the start of the meeting, we had no participants online.
November has just started and it has already been busy with last Friday’s Business Lunch and Peter Panek’s Bicycle count. Thank you to all concerned with the Business Lunch. From all accounts, it was very enjoyable and successful.
WELCOME GUESTS & SPEAKER:
Pres Anthony welcomed Dr Amanda Stafford who is our Guest Speaker tonight on the subject of Homelessness.
We also welcome other guests, Marion Cahif , who is no stranger and a visiting Rotarian from the Mandurah Club, Patti Walmsley and Peter Marfleet’s guest Mr John Novatscou. Welcome
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS:
Marion Cahif
Patti Walmsley - Rotary Club of Mandurah
John Novatscou
APOLOGIES & LOA:
Apologies and LOAs at 21, with 4 guests hence we are expecting around 46 people tonight.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Question: What is the Rotary significance of the week 2 – 8 November?
Answer: World Interact Week.
John Lindquist had the winning card, but no idea about the correct answer and was let down by his table mates.
Kevin Jackson had another winning card but incorrectly guessed “Naidoc Week”.
Peter Marfleet eventually answered the question correctly and won the bottle of wine for the table.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS:
Any Rotarian who has news they would like to share regarding Family or Friends?
John Saleeba shared that his wife, Lee celebrated her 75th Birthday with a ride in an Aston Martin.
- Lindsay Dry 76 years old today
- Leon Lorenzen 11 Nov 60 years old
- Bruce McGeorge turns 80 on 13 Nov
Partner’s Birthdays
- Ilse Lorenzen 10 Nov
- Tracy Jardine (Steward) 15 Nov
- Shelley Smith 15 Nov
Anniversaries
- Peter & Bec Robertson 10 years
- John & Beth MacKinnon 50 years
ATTENDANCE:
Kent advised that the final numbers in attendance are 38 members and 4 guests, so 4 short on our estimate.
CLUB AND COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Charitable Trust: (Russell Hawkins)
No report.
Secretary: (Craig James)
There is a Board Meeting this evening.
Treasurer: (Leon Lorenzen)
No report.
Club Service: (Peter Panek)
A big thanks to all who participated in the Bike Census, raising $840 for the Club through your efforts.
Jason van Straalen gave members a history about the scented candle fundraising drive and requested members get their orders in soon.
(Minute Taker’s Note: All members have been sent an order form via email).
Community Service: (Tim Humphry)
No Report
Vocational Service: (Trevor Gorey)
No Report
International Service: (Michael Bissett)
On Sat 21st Nov there will be a stall at Claremont Quarter to raise money for Nokor Tep Hospital. Volunteers and donations for the stall are all eagerly being pursued. Also, raffle prizes are being sought from Club members.
Public Image: (Kevin Jackson)
CEO of Nedlands City council will be our guest next week.
Membership and New Members: ( John Bolto)
Business lunch had 166 paying guests. Speaker was considered to be very good.
A successful event all round.
A committee meeting will be held next week
New members training session to be held on 23rd Nov at 5 pm at the Club
Youth: ( Kim Smith)
A committee meeting was held this evening.
RYLA – 2 applications received to date, the opportunity for 2 more applicants.
Shenton College will provide 4 students for the Science Experience.
Kim attended the 4 Way test Speaking contest and was suitably impressed with the organisation effort and the quality of the contestants.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Tony Chien advised that he still has a number of tickets for the METSO concert and he would encourage all members to partake of this wonderful concert on Sunday 13th December from 5:00-7:00pm.
PRESIDENTS REPORT: ( Pres Anthony McGrath)
- From the Treasury. Please finalise your Polio Donations and Business Lunch payments by the end of THIS week or sooner.
- Men’s Shed Open Days. I have distributed an email regarding information on this one.
- The Rotary Club of Perth is having a fundraising event to support Cancer Research at The Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Details are;
The Duxton, Thursday 28th November 2020 at 6 pm. See me for more information.
SERGEANT: ( Trevor Gorey)
Corporal John Murdoch
The Sergeant served to extract the following fines from members:
Wine Table – obviously
Business Lunch Table organisers whose guests received a prize. The list included
- Peter Panek
- Richard Gorham
- John Lindquist
Melbourne Cup – winners from any tickets/sweepstakes should share their winnings. The winners included;
- Peter Webb
- Peter Marfleet
John Bolto- for leaving the Business lunch which he helped organise) early to go and play golf.
Tony Chien- for leaving his wife, Robyn’s, birthday flower behind at the Club
Kim Smith for organising a function which got a bit rowdy and resulted in him wearing a glass of red wine.
GUEST SPEAKER: ( Dr Amanda Stafford - Homelessness)
The guest speaker was introduced by John MacKinnon who provided a brief synopsis of Dr Stafford’s background, before inviting her to the podium.
Dr Amanda Stafford is an Emergency Medicine Specialist and is the Clinical Lead RPH Homeless Team. She is also a Hopeless Medicine Specialist
Dr Stafford detailed the story of “Million Dollar Murray” and how over a 10 year period “It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murray”
She explained how most homeless people resolve their homeless state in 1-2 nights, however those few who cannot resolve their plight end up spending an ever-increasing period of homelessness.
Dr Stafford provided the following examples of the issues
A 31yo Female. Homeless for 27 months. She required 103 Emergency Department (“ED”) visits with 49 hospital admits entailing 332 days of hospitalisation. Total estimated cost, $637,586.
A 35yo Male, Homeless for 27 months. He required 51 ED visits with 28 hospital admits resulting in 124 days of hospitalisation. Total estimated cost: $332,916.
A 58yo Male. Homeless for 29 months. He experienced 69 ED visits with 39 hospital admits for a total of 84 days of hospitalisation. Total estimated cost $248,124.
RPH Homeless Team
- First 30 months of Homeless Team operations:
- 1,014 individuals with No Fixed Address
- Average age 44yrs old: 30% women: 30% aboriginal
- In the 3 years prior to the first contact with the RPH Homeless Team
- 8,278 ED presentations
- 3,496 inpatient admissions = 15,987 days of hospital inpatient care
Total estimated cost: $57.3 million
($28.4 million in the 1 year prior)
* IHPA Round 22
WA Tertiary Hospital inpatient bed day: $2909/day
WA Tertiary Emergency Department visit: $864/ED visit
And despite all these resources, they still remain homeless.
Who pays for all these costs and resources?
You! The taxpayer.
The costs are incurred by
- The Hospital system,
- The Department of Justice and the prison system
- The Police department
Data from Perth and Fremantle
So how do you fix the problem? This is what we know works
- Safe suitable housing
- Follow up social services, including counselling, drug rehabilitation, etc
- Follow up regular medical treatment.
Housing First
- Start with LT housing – 80% in housing at 1 year
Vs Housing Ready
- End with LT housing- 20% in housing at 1 year
Housing First
- Long term, affordable, safe, suitable housing
- 1/10th of a caseworker
- Regular GP visits
This model absolutely works and is the key to resolving the homeless issue.
To prove the model, a program was undertaken to house 50 of what would normally be termed the most difficult patients to house. The program was called ;
50 Lives 50 Homes
- The most complex, chronic, crusty individuals experiencing homelessness in Perth and Fremantle
- 4 years, collaborative inter-agency work
- Permanent housing and Wrap around support
- Housed 278 people in 240 houses
- Retention rate overall 81% at one year
- If allocated by best fit: 87% 3 years vs 60% if simply next housing to come up
Dr Stafford discussed the good work of the “Homeless Healthcare GP” (previously known as the mobile GP.
Dr Stafford explained how the School of Population and Global Health UWA collected data on the problem in order to provide real evidence of the issues and solutions.
If one doesn’t wish to fix the issue because the heart leads you to find a solution, then the fact that no solution will continue to cost the community enormously should help one make the right choice.
Dr Stafford provided the following solutions.
Housing solutions
- Vacant property tax
- Defence Housing style program
- Matchmaking Service: Homeshare Melbourne
- Social Impact bonds
- Rental subsidy
- Tax relief for developers building “modest housing”
- Enforce the 12% social housing in new developments
Dr Stafford also provided the following information, however, time prevented her from exploring this information during her talk.
Caseworker support gap
- Community Caseworkers – 1/10 clients
- ~$70-90k/year each
- Employed by NGOs
- Funded by Dept of Communities
- No proposed increase in funding for 2 years
How are we doing?
- Rough Sleeper Cohort 9/11/2020
- 376 individuals
- 71% were “high acuity” – complex/chronic/crusty
- 25% had a named organisation managing them
- 19% had a named caseworker from the organisation
- 307 individuals did not have a caseworker due to lack of caseworker staff – insufficient funding to NGOs
The Homeswest Gap
- Pay 25% of whatever income is coming in
- Single bedroom dwelling: 80% of chronic homeless
Priority waitlist: 1.3 years
Not on priority: 9.2 years
Debt/previous eviction: forever
The Rental Gap
- Newstart Allowance: $245/week
- 25-30% on housing = $61 - $74/week
- Rental Assistance: max is $45/week
- = $106-119/week
- Average weekly rent 1 bedroom apartment in Perth:
- = $300/week
Pres Anthony thanked Dr Amanda for an informative and thought-provoking talk and provided her with a Rotary Fruit cake, which Dr Stafford seemed to indicate would be greatly appreciated.
REMINDER OF COMING EVENTS : (Pres Anthony McGrath)
- 16 November 2020 - Mark Goodlet CEO City of Nedlands
- 23 November 2020 - Citizen Mentorship Presentations
- 30 November 2020 - District Governor’s visit DG Jon Bilson
An action-packed month!
THANKS TO:
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NGC staff Denise, and Staff; and our On Par Caterers.
Thank you to our Guests who attended this evening.
- Dr Amanda Stafford
- Marion Cahif
- Patti Walmsley
- John Novatscou
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RECOGNISE OUR VERY GENEROUS SPONSORS:
- Lizzy Bee-supplier of flowers
- Butler Settineri – Hon Club Auditors
- Paragon Consultants -Our Foundation’s Auditors
- PSZ Accounting for providing Xero Accounting software and
Sharesight Portfolio reporting software to the Charitable Trust.
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MEETING CLOSE:
Recognise RI President’s Holger Knaack Presidential theme for the year
"Rotary Opens Opportunities" and Acknowledge the Flag.
______________________________________________________________________
Minutes: Peter Panek
Q of W: Peter Panek
Editor: Tom Langley
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