Homelessness and homelessness services

People experiencing homelessness, and those at risk of homelessness (see glossary), are among Australia’s most socially and economically disadvantaged. To support Australians at risk of or experiencing homelessness, governments across Australia fund housing and homelessness services. These services are mainly delivered 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 general services to people facing housing crises (AIHW 2022).

The data on Specialist Homelessness Services on this page are drawn from the Specialist Homelessness Services annual report (AIHW 2022) and the Specialist Homelessness Services monthly data report (AIHW 2023).

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 (Culhane et al. 2020; Lee et al. 2010).

People experiencing homelessness

On ABS Census night in 2021, more than 122,000 people were estimated to be experiencing homelessness in Australia – 56% were male, 21% were aged 25–34 and 20% were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people (ABS 2023). The highest rate of homelessness was in the Northern Territory (about 563 people per 10,000 population), while the lowest was in Western Australia (37 people per 10,000).

Around 47,900 (39%) people were living in severely crowded dwellings. Over 24,300 (20%) were living in supported accommodation for the homeless and 7,600 (6%) were rough sleepers (Table 1).

Source: ABS 2023.

Trends in the number of people experiencing homelessness

The rate of homelessness in Australia has has fluctuated between 51 people per 10,000 population in 2001 and 48 in 2021 (ABS 2023). The rate fell between the last 2 Census collections; from 50 people per 10,000 in 2016 to 48 in 2021.

• Between 2011 and 2021, most of the increase in the rate of homelessness was due to people living in severely crowded dwellings, increasing from 41,370 people in 2011 to 47,900 in 2021.
• From 2011 to 2021, the number of people living in boarding houses increased by 48%, from 14,900 in 2011 to 22,100 in 2021.
• The number of people living in other temporary lodgings increased by almost 5-fold, from 700 in 2016 to 3,900 in 2021 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Rate of homelessness, people per 10,000 population, by homelessness group, 2001 to 2021

Note: Homelessness groups are mutually exclusive, therefore persons will only appear in one category.

Source: ABS 2023.

Homelessness services

SHS agencies receive government funding to provide assistance to both people experiencing and people at risk of homelessness. The services are aimed at prevention, early intervention, crisis and post crisis assistance and include accommodation-related services and personal services. SHS agencies vary in size and in the types of assistance provided.

In 2021–22, about 273,000 clients were assisted; a rate of 106.2 clients per 10,000 population, or 1.1% of the Australian population (AIHW 2022). Most clients were at risk of experiencing homelessness (56% or 140,000 clients) when first presenting to SHS. Another 110,000 clients (44%) were homeless. (Housing status at the start of support was unknown for around 22,400 SHS clients.)

SHS agencies have supported more than 1.5 million Australians since the collection began on 1 July 2011 (AIHW 2022).

Characteristics of SHS clients

Of the 273,000 clients SHS agencies assisted in 2021–22: 

• 6 in 10 were female (60% or 164,000 clients)
• 1 in 6 were children under the age of 10 (16% or 43,000 clients)
• 1 in 10 were children and youth aged 10–17 (12% or 33,000 clients)
• the largest age group of adult clients were aged 25–34 (19% of all clients or 50,600 clients)
• about 13,900 were women aged 55 or older (8.4% of total female clients) and 11,500 were men aged 55 or older (11% of total male clients)
• 1 in 3 (34% or 87,000) clients were living in single-parent with one or more children families when they sought support (AIHW 2022).

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, First Nations people, people leaving health or social care arrangements, and older Australians.

In 2021–22, around 108,000 SHS clients had 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, including clients with problematic drug or alcohol issues (60% of the cohort), young people aged 15–24 presenting alone (52%) and clients who are current or former members of the Australian Defence Force (52%).

Note: 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.

Source: AIHW 2022.

Trends in clients assisted by SHS agencies

The number of clients assisted by SHS agencies each year decreased from around 288,800 people in 2017–18 to about 272,700 in 2021–22 (Table 3). Over the same period, the:

• rate of all SHS clients decreased from 117.4 to 106.2 clients per 10,000 population
• number of support days increased by 3.5 million days, from 24.7 to 28.2 million.

Note: 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 ERP by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2017–18 to 2021–22.

Between 2011–12 and 2021–22, the rate of SHS clients was highest in 2016–17, decreasing in more recent years. The overall rate for female clients increased from around 124.4 clients per 10,000 population in 2011–12 to 127.1 in 2021–22; the rate of male clients declined from 87.1 in 2011–12 to 84.9 in 2021–22 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Rate of SHS clients by sex, 2011–12 to 2021–22

Source: AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2011–12 to 2021–22.

Where do I go for more information?

See Homelessness services for more on this topic.

For more information on homelessness and homelessness services, see:

• AIHW Specialist homelessness services annual report
• AIHW Housing data dashboard
• AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services: monthly data
• ABS Estimating homelessness: Census, 2021 
• ABS Information Paper—A Statistical Definition of Homelessness, 2012.