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The Ballarat Foundation has committed $100,000 to the Ballarat Zero Project, a community-driven effort to end rough sleeping in our city. Led by the Central Highlands Homelessness Alliance with Uniting Vic.Tas, the project brings local services together around a clear goal: make rough sleeping rare, brief and non-recurring. Our grant helps build the foundations that turn this goal into day-to-day practice, including coordinated outreach, shared data, and stronger housing pathways.

Ballarat Zero is using the Advance to Zero approach, which starts with a real-time picture of who needs help right now and matches people to housing first, with support wrapped around them. This is not a single program but a way of working across the whole system. It helps services see inflow and outflow, reduce duplication and focus on what matters most for each person: a stable home and the support to keep it.

The investment is already enabling practical steps that would be difficult for any one service to fund alone. A by-name list gives the sector a live understanding of need. Case conferencing means agencies can solve problems together, rather than in silos. Shared reporting lets the community track progress openly and hold itself to account. The City of Ballarat is a key partner, ensuring this work is embedded locally and supported over time.

We have seen this approach deliver results in other regions. Communities using Advance to Zero have shown that when services share data, align their efforts and prioritise housing first, more people move into safe homes and stay there. Those lessons are now being applied in Ballarat, adapted for our local context and housing market.

This grant is part of the Ballarat Foundation’s 2024 funding round and reflects what we heard from partners about rising pressure on housing and longer spells of homelessness. Philanthropy can move quickly to help stand up the shared tools and coordination that government funding often does not cover. By investing early in the infrastructure of collaboration, we aim to accelerate outcomes for people sleeping rough and build a system that lasts.

Success for Ballarat Zero will be measured in people, not just percentages. It means fewer neighbours sleeping outside, faster routes into housing and better support to sustain a tenancy. It also means a stronger network of services working from the same picture, solving problems together and learning as they go. As this work progresses, partners will share updates so our community can see what is changing and where help is still needed.