FRANKSTON City Council is seeking greater support for the homeless population, as part of its advocacy push in the run up to the state election.
The council is seeking $2.5m over five years to expand assertive outreach, sustain coordination, improve early engagement, and strengthen pathways into housing.
Rough sleeping has risen substantially over the last few years with a lack of affordable housing across the municipality, and a complete lack of crisis accommodation.
As of the end of July, there were 100 people known to be accessing local homelessness services. This included 56 people sleeping rough, 16 in respite accommodation, 11 in temporary accommodation and 17 in other forms of accommodation.
Frankston currently has the third highest recorded rough sleeping population, behind the City of Melbourne, with 247 people, and Mornington Peninsula Shire, with 155 people.
Frankston City launched “Frankston Zero” in 2021 with the ambitious goal of eliminating homelessness in the municipality by 2023 (Aim for no rough sleepers by 2023, The Times 24/8/21).
While that aim has not been met, the program has brought together a broad base of services to identify people sleeping rough, coordinate support, and connect people with pathways into safe and stable housing.
The program claims to have supported 77 people into secure housing since its inception, and continued to respond to rising demand, increasing complexity and more dispersed rough sleeping across the municipality.
The challenge for Frankston City is while the model is proven to work, limited funding is restricting the capacity to respond to rising demand, increasing complexity and more dispersed rough sleeping across the municipality.
Mayor of Frankston City Council, Sue Baker, told The Times “Frankston City has a strong, collaborative homelessness response, but demand is continuing to outpace available resources”.
“Greater support from the state government will help ensure vulnerable residents can access the right support, at the right time, and move towards long-term housing outcomes.”
One of the homelessness support providers, Community Support Frankston, have expressed their backing for Frankston City Council’s campaign for state government funding, claiming resources are at “breaking point”.
“The housing and cost-of-living issues we are facing in Frankston require urgent government attention,” said Janet McCahon, vice-chairperson of Community Support Frankston.
“Assertive homelessness outreach in Frankston is at breaking point. Without adequate support, and with emergency relief funding at record-low levels, we simply can’t continue to do more with less.”
McCahon said she did not begrudge the recent $2.1m commitment over two years to homelessness outreach services on the Mornington Peninsula but questioned why Frankston was not receiving the same level of attention given the scale of its homelessness problem.
“It’s visible, it’s tangible. It’s not just a data set — it’s here,” said McCahon.
“I think part of it is because the peninsula is seen as a tourist hotspot and has a reputation for being wealthy. Homelessness there tends to shock people and attract attention. Whereas in Frankston, people just expect to see homelessness.
“But it’s the same problem. The same suffering. We’re all in it together.”
Community Support Frankston offer a range of services to those doing it tough in Frankston City. In 2025-26, more than 3,051 people and their families sought and received emergency relief from the organisation on 22,697 separate occasions.
First published in the Frankston Times – 18 August 2026
