Specialist Homelessness Services Collection: first results
Despite Australia's ongoing economic prosperity, homelessness continues to affect a large number of people. The implementation of the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) on 1 July 2011 was a significant milestone in the availability of data about people who receive assistance because they are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
The SHSC, which is collected and reported each month by agencies that provide services targeted to homeless people and those at risk of homelessness, collates information about all clients who receive services. This includes data about clients':
- recent and current circumstances at the time they present to the agency
- circumstances at the end of each month (while they receive support)
- circumstances at the end of the period of support
- assistance received throughout the support period.
Some basic information is also collected on clients who seek assistance because they are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, but do not receive assistance.
The SHSC replaced the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) National Data Collection (NDC), which had been reported by agencies since 1996. The SHSC has a number of advantages over the SAAP NDC, including:
- capturing more comprehensive data about all clients
- capturing more complete data about children who receive assistance from specialist homelessness agencies
- better data collection and validation tools
- more regular data collection (monthly rather than six-monthly).
This means that, as well as providing up-to-date data on all clients who receive services from specialist homelessness agencies, there is greater potential to highlight populations of interest. This is evident in the recently released report, Specialist Homelessness Services Collection: first results (September quarter 2011), which presents data for July to September 2011. The report outlines the major findings of the collection (see the highlighted box on page 13), as well as focusing on five groups of special interest. Highlights from those groups include:
Indigenous clients
- 19% of clients were of Indigenous origin.
- Indigenous clients are relatively young compared with non-Indigenous clients―39% are under 18 compared with 29% of non-Indigenous clients.
Children
- Most children who were clients of agencies in the September quarter 2011 were under 10 (58%, or 18% of all clients), 20% were 10–14 and 22% were 15–17.
- One-third of all children (32%) attended the agency on their own.
People escaping domestic and family violence
- People escaping domestic and family violence (including children) were predominantly female, and 22% were children under 10.
- Forty-three per cent of all clients who were identified as escaping domestic and family violence received accommodation services, and 19% did so for more than 6 weeks.
People experiencing primary homelessness
- Males were more likely to have experienced primary homelessness (that is, slept rough, lived in non-conventional accommodation, or in an improvised dwelling or car) shortly before (or during) their period of support from the agency. Males accounted for 55% of this population.
- Children and young people (aged under 18) accounted for 21% of clients who had experienced primary homelessness.
People leaving care and custodial settings
- Five per cent of all clients who received assistance from an agency had recently left a care or custodial setting―40% of these clients received services after leaving a care setting such as a hospital, 33% after leaving a custodial setting (such as an adult correctional facility), and 27% were young people who had a care or protection order in place when they became clients.
- Most clients in these client groups received accommodation services as part of their support.
What the report found:
- In this quarter, an estimated 91,627 clients were assisted by specialist homelessness agencies, of which 59% were female.
- Eighteen per cent of clients were under 10 and half under 25.
- In 31% of support periods, clients had lived in short-term or emergency accommodation in the month before presenting for support, and 19% had 'slept rough'.
- Most clients presented to agencies alone (66%), but more than one-third presented with children or were themselves children.
- Domestic and family violence was the most common main reason for seeking assistance (26%).
- Short-term or emergency accommodation was identified as a need for clients in 32% of support periods, medium-term/transitional housing in 23% of support periods and long-term housing in 26% of support periods.
- Accommodation was provided in 16% of all support periods in the quarter.
- 'Assistance to sustain a tenancy or prevent tenancy failure or eviction' was identified as a client need in 21% of support periods.
- Based on closed support periods, some modest improvements over the quarter were evident for clients as a whole in relation to their housing situations:
- Before and at the end of support, most clients were living in a house, townhouse, or flat (65% at the beginning of support; 66% at the end).
- There was a small decrease in clients who had no dwelling, were living in a motor car or in an improvised dwelling (10% at the beginning of support; 7% at the end).
The report is at www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=10737421507.