Data sources

The Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) collection obtains information about people, adults and children, who seek assistance from specialist homelessness agencies. Homelessness data for the SHS collection is submitted through a secure Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) online platform called ValidataTM.  ValidataTM accepts and processes data from SHS agencies across the country.  These agencies collect data through a variety of client management systems, including Specialist Homelessness Information Platform (SHIP) and report data to AIHW monthly via ValidataTM.  ValidataTM performs a number of validation checks on submitted data, which ensures high quality reporting for the collection.