People experiencing homelessness, and those at risk of homelessness (see glossary), are among Australia’s most socially and economically disadvantaged. Governments across Australia fund services to support people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness. Services are delivered mainly by non–government organisations, including those specialising in delivering services to specific target groups (such as young people or people experiencing Family and domestic violence) and those providing more generic services to people facing housing crises (AIHW 2018).

Why do people experience homelessness?

Homelessness can be the result of many social, economic and health–related factors. Individual factors, such as low educational attainment, whether someone is working, experience of family and domestic violence, ill health (including mental health issues) and disability, trauma, and substance misuse may make a person more at risk of becoming homeless (Fitzpatrick et al. 2013). Structural factors, including lack of adequate income and limited access to affordable and available housing, also contribute to risk of homelessness (Johnson et al. 2015; Wood et al. 2015). Determining how individual and structural risk factors interact to influence a person’s vulnerability to, and experience of, homelessness is an important ongoing focus of homelessness research (Fitzpatrick & Christian 2006; Lee et al. 2010).

Defining homelessness

There is no single definition of homelessness.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines homelessness, for the purposes of the Census of Population and Housing, as the lack of one or more elements that represent ‘home’.

The ABS statistical definition of homelessness is ‘… when a person does not have suitable accommodation alternatives they are considered homeless if their current living arrangement:

  • is in a dwelling that is inadequate;
  • has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable; or
  • does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations’ (ABS 2012).

The Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) (see glossary) collection is the national dataset about specialist support provided to Australians who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It considers that a person is homeless if they are living in non–conventional accommodation (such as living on the street), or short–term or emergency accommodation (such as living temporarily with friends and relatives) (AIHW 2018).

People experiencing homelessness

On Census night in 2016, more than 116,000 people were estimated to be homeless in Australia—58% were male, 21% were aged 25–34 and 20% identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (ABS 2018). Around 51,000 (44%) were living in severely crowded dwellings. Over 21,000 (18%) were living in supported accommodation for the homeless and 8,200 (7%) were rough sleepers (Table 1).

Table 1: Number of homeless persons, by homelessness type, Census night 2016

Type of homelessness

Number

Persons living in improvised dwellings, tents, or sleeping out (rough sleepers)

8,200

Persons in supported accommodation for the homeless

21,235

Persons staying temporarily with other households

17,725

Persons living in boarding houses

17,503

Persons in other temporary lodgings

678

Persons living in severely crowded dwellings

51,088

All homeless persons

116,427

Source: ABS 2018.

Trends

Census data shows the rate of homelessness has fluctuated, from 51 per 10,000 population in 2001 to a low of 45 in 2006. The rate increased to 50 in 2016 (Figure 1, ABS 2018).

  • Between 2011 and 2016, most of the increase in homelessness rate was due to persons living in severely crowded dwellings. This increased from 41,370 people to 51,088 over the period.
  • From 2011 to 2016, the number of homeless people living in boarding houses increased by 17%, from around 14,900 to 17,500 persons.
  • In 2016, the Northern Territory had the highest rate of homeless people (about 600 persons per 10,000 population) and Tasmania the lowest (32 per 10,000).

This vertical bar chart shows that the rate of homelessness has changed from 50.8 per 10,000 population in 2001, to 45.2 per 10,000 population in 2006, 47.6 per 10,000 in 2011 and 49.8 per 100,000 population in 2016. Most of the increase in homelessness between 2006 and 2016 occurred in persons living in ‘severely’ crowded dwellings, which increased from 15.9 per 100,000 population in 2006 to 21.8 per 100,000 population in 2016.

Figure 1 data table (117KB XLSX)

Homelessness services

Across Australia, SHS agencies provide services aimed at prevention and early intervention, crisis and post crisis assistance to support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The agencies receive government funding to deliver accommodation-related and personal services. They vary in size and in the types of assistance provided.

As noted, SHS agencies provide assistance to both people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of homelessness. Each year (since the start of the collection in 2011–12), SHS have assisted a greater proportion of clients at risk of homelessness than those experiencing homelessness.

How many people received assistance?

SHS agencies supported more than 1.2 million Australians between 2011–12 and 2018–19 (AIHW 2019). In 2018–19, 290,300 clients were assisted, equating to a rate of 116.2 clients per 10,000 population, or 1.2% of the Australian population. Most clients (153,700) were at risk of homelessness when first presenting to SHS in 2018–19. Another 112,000 clients were experiencing homelessness. (Housing status at the start of support was unknown for around 24,600 SHS clients.)

Characteristics of SHS clients

Of the 290,300 clients SHS agencies assisted in 2018–19: 

  • 6 in 10 were female (60% or 173,600 clients)
  • 1 in 6 were children under the age of 10 (17% or 48,900 clients)
  • 1 in 10 were children and youth aged 10–17 (13% or 36,900 clients)
  • the largest age group of adult clients were aged 25–34 (18% of all clients or 53,200 clients)
  • about 13,300 were women aged 55 or older (4.6% of total clients) and 10,800 were men aged 55 or older (3.7% of total clients)
  • Over 1 in 3 (36% or 95,700) clients were living in single-parent with children families when they sought support (AIHW 2019).

Australians known to be at particular risk of homelessness include those who have experienced family and domestic violence, young people, children on care and protection orders, Indigenous Australians, people leaving health or social care arrangements, and Australians aged 55 or older.

In 2018–19, about 116,400 SHS clients experienced family and domestic violence at some point during the reporting period (Table 2). Some SHS client groups were more likely to be experiencing homelessness than other groups at the beginning of support, in particular, young people aged 15–24 presenting alone (51%), children on care and protection orders (50%) and Indigenous Australians (46%).

Table 2: Characteristics of client groups of interest, 2018–19

Client group(a)

Number of clients

 

Female

(%)

Homeless at the beginning of support

(%)

 Median length of support (days)

 

Receiving accommodation

(%)

Family and domestic violence

116,400

 

 76.2 37 54 36
Current mental health issues 86,500 60.5 48 75 36
Indigenous Australians 68,900 61.2 46 49 41
Young people presenting alone (15–24 years) 43,000 62.4 51 54 31
Older people (55 years or older) 24,200 55.1 33 31 17

Children (0–17 years) on care and protection orders(b)

 9,200 51.5 50 95 49

(a) Clients may be in one or more client vulnerability group. Client vulnerabilities groups are domestic and family violence, mental health, and problematic drug and/or alcohol.

(b) A client is identified as being under a care or protection order if they are aged under 18 and have provided any of the following information in any support period (any month within the support period) during the reporting period (either the week before, at the beginning of the support period or during support): they reported that they were under a care and protection order and that they had care arrangements, or they reported ‘Transition from foster care/child safety residential placements’ as a reason for seeking assistance, or main reason for seeking assistance.

Source: AIHW 2019.

Trends

The number of clients assisted by SHS agencies each year has increased from around 255,700 people in 2014–15 to more than 290,300 in 2018–19 (Table 3). Over the same period, the:

  • rate of all SHS clients increased from 108.9 to 116.2 clients per 10,000 population
  • number of support days increased by 6.3 million days, from 19.7 to 26.0 million.

Table 3: SHS clients, by number, rate and housing situation at the beginning of support, 2014–15 to 2018–19

 

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

Number of clients

255,657

 249,196 288,273 288,795 290,317

Rate (per 10,000 population)

 108.9 117.2 119.2 117.4 116.2

Housing situation at the beginning of the first support period (proportion all clients)

Homeless

 43 44 44 43 42

At risk of homelessness

 57 56 56 57 58

Length of support (median number of days)

 33 35 37 39 44

Proportion receiving accommodation

 33 31 30 29 30

Median number of nights accommodated

 34 33 33 32 29

Notes:

  1. Rates are crude rates based on the Australian estimated resident population (ERP) at 30 June of the reference year. Minor adjustments in rates may occur between publications reflecting revision of the estimated resident population by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
  2. The denominator for the proportion receiving accommodation is all SHS clients. Denominator values for proportions are provided in the relevant supplementary table.
  3. The denominator for the proportion achieving all case management goals is the number of client groups with a case management plan. Denominator values for proportions are provided in the relevant supplementary table.
  4. Data for 2014–15 to 2016–17 have been adjusted for non-response. Due to improvements in the rates of agency participation and SLK validity, data from 2017–18 are not weighted. The removal of weighting does not constitute a break in time series and weighted data from 2014–15 to 2016–17 are comparable with unweighted data for 2017–18 onwards. For further information, please refer to the Technical Notes.

Source: AIHW 2019.

Where do I go for more information?

See Homelessness services for more on this topic.

For more information on homelessness and homelessness services, see:

References

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2012. Information paper—a statistical definition of homelessness, ABS cat. no. 4922.0. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2018. Census of Population and Housing: Estimating homelessness, 2016. ABS cat. no. 2049.0. Canberra: ABS.

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2019. Specialist Homelessness Services annual report 2018–19. Cat. no. HOU 318. Canberra: AIHW.  

Fitzpatrick S, Bramley G & Johnsen S 2013. Pathways into multiple exclusion homelessness in seven UK cities. Urban Studies 50:1.

Fitzpatrick S & Christian J 2006. Comparing homelessness research in the US and Britain. International Journal of Housing Policy 6:313–33.

Johnson G, Scutella R, Tseng Y & Wood G 2015. Entries and exits from homelessness: a dynamic analysis of the relationship between structural conditions and individual characteristics. Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) final report no. 248. Melbourne: AHURI.

Lee BA, Tyler KA & Wright JD 2010. The new homelessness revisited. Annual Review of Sociology 36:501–21.

Wood G, Batterham D, Cigdem M & Mallet S 2015. The structural drivers of homelessness in Australia 2001–11. Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) final report no. 238. Melbourne: AHURI.