A total of 86,400 unique SHS clients aged 55 and older received at least one service during the total period 2013–14 to 2017–18 (Figure 13). Over 6 in 10 were aged 55–64 (54,300 or 63% clients); there were fewer clients aged 65–74 (22,700 or 26%) and aged 75 and over (9,500 or 11%) (Supplementary table 11). Note: the age of clients presented throughout this section are based on the client age as at 30 June 2018. Overall, the 86,400 SHS clients received a median of 28 days of support and an average of 24 nights of accommodation per client.
While there were more female SHS clients (49,100 or 57%) than male clients (37,300 or 43%) over this period, male clients were more intense service users (Figure 13). Older male SHS clients had a higher median number of days of support (34 days per client) compared with female clients (23 days). Also, males received over half (58%) of the total nights of accommodation provided to older SHS clients (Supplementary table 11).