Overview

Governments across Australia fund a range of services to support people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. These services are delivered by non-government organisations including agencies specialising in delivering services to specific target groups (such as young people or people experiencing domestic and family violence), as well as those that provide more generic services to people facing housing crises.

Featured reports

Latest findings

278,300 clients were assisted by SHS agencies in 2020–21; more than 1.4 million clients since 2011–12

More than half of SHS clients in 2020–21 had received SHS assistance at some point since the collection began in 2011–12

Females are the main recipients of specialist homelessness services

Housing crisis and family and domestic violence are among the most common reasons for seeking assistance

Over half (54%) of custodial cohort clients had a current mental health issue in the 2014–17 period

In 2014–17, 91% of older clients presented for SHS support alone

More reports and statistics on homelessness services can be found under Housing assistance. The AIHW’s Housing data dashboard also contains the latest housing and homelessness data from over 20 national data sets, brought together in one place.