THE ACT’s upcoming budget will be geared towards supporting the vulnerable in the community with key funding set aside for homelessness, sucide prevention and legal aid services.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says a $26 million package, announced today (September 16) as part of the 2021-22 ACT budget, will support Canberrans through one of the “toughest times” the city has faced.

“We know the pandemic is difficult for many families and individuals in the community,” Mr Barr says.

“Today’s $26 million package ensures that those most in need in our community will continue to receive support as we respond to our local outbreak of the COVID-19 virus as well as in the years to follow.”

Over $8 million has been set aside to expand specialist homelessness programs that commenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, $2.2 million for suicide prevention programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans, $3.5 million for environmental groups to maintian the local landscape and $2.5 million for Legal Aid services.

An additonal four million will be used to increase the community sector indexation rate applied to annual grants funding.

The ACT government will shell out $762,000, over four years, for the Children and Young People Equipment Loan Service (CAYPELS). The service lends specialised medical equipment to children and young people such as wheelchairs and walking frames.

More than $600,000 has been set aside for trans and gender diverse support services and programs administered through A Gender Agenda and $570,000 will be used to support vulnerable people in the multicultural community, including an additional $180,000 for the Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Humanitarian program.

Other funding committments include $311,000 to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner, $184,000 to develop a model of care for five additional supported accommodation homes for people with mental illness and $100,000 for emergency food relief.

A additional $509,000 has been made availabe for the pandemic response team to carry out the ACT government Community Recovery Roadmap.

The ACT government will hand down it’s 2021-22 budget on October 6.