Unassisted requests for services: trends over time
In 2014–15, there were an estimated 119,910 requests for assistance that were not met. This represents a decrease of 22% from last year. Some key trends in unmet demand over the 4 years since the collection began have been:
- Numbers of unassisted requests remained stable from 2011–12 to 2013–14 but decreased in 2014–15. The decrease was due to reductions primarily in New South Wales and Queensland and is a reflection of the impact of new service delivery models in these states. For further details see the data quality information in the Technical information section.
- In contrast to the changes occurring in the number of unassisted requests for services, the number of support periods and the number of clients have been increasing over the same period.
|
2012–13
Unassisted requests |
2012–13
All assisted clients |
2013–14
Unassisted requests |
2013–14
All assisted clients |
2014–15
Unassisted requests |
2014–15
All assisted clients |
Number |
152,103 |
244,176 |
*154,446 |
254,001 |
119,910 |
255,657 |
Sex |
60% female
40% male |
59% female
41% male |
61% female
39% male |
59% female
41% male |
64% female
36% male |
59% female
41% male |
Living arrangement |
Lone person |
70% |
32% |
68% |
30% |
63% |
29% |
Sole parent |
27% |
31% |
29% |
33% |
33% |
34% |
Couple with child/ren |
— |
13% |
— |
13% |
— |
13% |
Couple without children |
1% |
6% |
2% |
5% |
2% |
5% |
Other family group |
2% |
19% |
2% |
18% |
2% |
19% |
— Rounded to zero
* Indicates where previously published data have been revised to ensure consistent reporting over time.
Source: Specialist homelessness services annual reports 2012–13, 2013–14 and 2014–15.
Unassisted requests for service
Analysis of how often a person requested assistance and how many later became clients of specialist homelessness agencies can only be undertaken where the SLK was completed (about half of all unassisted requests). In 2014–15, on average, each person who was not assisted approached an agency 1.4 times, similar to 2013–14. In 2014–15, 32% of those with a valid SLK later went on to become a client and receive services during the year compared with 29% in 2013–14. The outcomes for the remaining 68% are not known—they may have received assistance from a non-SHS service, used their own support networks or continued to experience unstable housing.
Number of unassisted requests for services
1 in 4
unassisted requests were from females aged between 18 and 34 years (overall, nearly 2 in 3 of all ages were women, and 1 in 3 were men).
In 2014–15, there was an estimated 119,910 requests for service where an agency was not able to provide any assistance (Table UNMET.1). This equates to an average 329 requests per day that could not be met (Table UNMET.4). On average, about 212 daily unassisted requests (or 65% of all requests) were made by females, and 116 (35%) by males. This reflects the overall service user population, which is predominantly female.
- The daily average number of unassisted requests was much lower than in 2013–14 (a decrease of 22%) (Figure UNMET.1).
- Neither the proportions of requests that were from females and males nor their age group distributions have changed from the previous year.
- Four in 5 requests from single persons (aged 15 or over) with children were from females (81%) and most of these females were aged between 18 and 34 (62% of single females).
What services were requested?
Over 70%
of average daily unassisted requests included a need for some type of accommodation support.
- The majority of unassisted daily accommodation requests related to short-term or emergency accommodation (60%) (Figure UNMET.2). Females were more likely than males to have unmet requests for short-term or emergency accommodation (61% and 39%, respectively).
- Ninety-three per cent of daily unassisted requests for services from single persons with their children were for accommodation needs, compared with 62% for single persons without children (Figure UNMET.3).
- Most commonly, agencies reported that they could not meet requests for accommodation because there was no accommodation available at the time of the request (51% of unmet requests for accommodation) (Table UNMET.7). This figure is down from 58% in 2013–14.
Unmet need for services
Clients receiving support from specialist homelessness services are often identified as needing a wide range of services. Some needs arise more than once in a support period and this makes it difficult to assess (from the available data) the extent to which they have been met. In this section, each client need and the services to meet that need are only identified once in each support period.
Unmet need for accommodation and housing assistance services
- The most common need identified was for accommodation. In 2014–15, 56% of all clients needed at least 1 type of accommodation service.
- 84,000 clients (or 33% of SHS clients) identified a need for long-term accommodation; only about 5,000 (or 6%) of those were provided with the service (Figure UNMET.4).
- 95,000 clients (or 37% of SHS clients) needed short-term or emergency accommodation; 66% of those requesting this service were provided with assistance.
- The numbers of clients requesting these 2 forms of accommodation were similarly large however the considerable difference in the proportions of clients receiving these types of accommodation highlights the substantial unmet need for long-term housing for SHS clients.
Unmet need for general and specialised services
- Some types of client needs were met for a significant proportion of clients. For example, of the 141,000 clients who needed assistance for advocacy/liaison, 97% were provided assistance, and of the clients requesting material brokerage (90,000), 88% were provided with assistance (Table CLIENTS.15).
- Other types of client needs were less commonly met. For example, among those clients who required gambling counselling (less than 1% of clients), the level of unmet need was substantial—around 27% at the end of support. This may be related to the specialist skills required to provide gambling counselling and the limited availability of these skills within the SHS agencies and other services that clients may be referred to.
The level of need for broad groups of specialised services is shown in Figure UNMET.5.
- Mental health services were one of the most common specialised services identified as needed but these needs were most commonly unmet (neither provided nor referred).
- More than a quarter of the clients identifying with a need for either disability services or drug and alcohol services did not have their needs met.