Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024–25

The long-term welfare of current and former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members is important, as they, like other Australians, may experience homelessness for a number of reasons, including:

• Complex personal needs – mental health issues and other vulnerabilities, reflecting the unique demands of service (McFarlane et al. 2011).
• Financial stress – challenges with employment when transitioning from service to civilian life (Searle et al. 2019).         

At 30 June 2025, there were 57,200 permanent current serving ADF members (Defence 2024) and an estimated 576,800 living former serving members (DVA 2025). 

Research found that an estimated 5.3% of veterans who transitioned from the Australian Defence Force between 2010 and 2014 experienced homelessness within a 12-month period, based on data from the 2015 Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme (TWRP) survey (Hilferty et al. 2019).

Identified risk factors for veterans contributing to a high risk of experiencing homelessness include higher levels of psychological stress during service, as well as relationship breakdowns and unemployment following transition from the ADF (Hilferty et al. 2019).

Eligible current serving ADF personnel can access housing and rental assistance through Defence Housing Australia. Current or former ADF members can access a range of housing and homelessness services through government and non-government organisations, including subsidised housing loans, home support loans (for maintenance or modifications that encourage independent living), insurance, and other benefits or discounts (Defence 2022).

Client characteristics

In 2024–25, among the 1,500 SHS clients who were current or former members of the ADF (Figure ADF.1): 

• Almost 5 in 10 (48% or 700) with a known labour force status in 2024–25 were unemployed, 4 in 10 (41% or 600) were not in the labour force, and around 1 in 10 (11% or 155) were employed when they first presented to a SHS agency.
• Around two-thirds (65% or 1,000) had at least one of three selected vulnerabilities (family and domestic violence, a current mental health issue or problematic drug and/or alcohol use), greater than the proportion among all SHS clients (60%). (Supplementary table CLIENTS.47).

To compare selected characteristics and experiences across the SHS client groups presented in this report, please refer to the Client group comparison visualisations.

Living arrangements

In 2024–25, around three-quarters (76% or 1,100) of clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF lived alone or were single parents living with their children. Around one-quarter (26% or 135 clients) of female clients were single parents living with their children, compared to 5.2% (51 clients) of males (Supplementary table CLIENTS.45).

Service use patterns

The length of support received by clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF has increased from a median of 60 days in 2022–23 to 75 days of support in 2024–25. These clients had an average of 2.4 support periods per client in 2024–25 (Supplementary table CLIENTS.48).

Client needs and main reason for assistance

Main reasons for seeking assistance

In 2024–25, among the 840 SHS clients who identified as current or former ADF members and who were experiencing homelessness, the main reasons for seeking assistance were (Supplementary tables CLIENTS.12 and ADF.5):

• inadequate or inappropriate dwelling conditions (26% or 215 clients)
• housing crisis (23% or around 190 clients)
• housing affordability stress (9.5% or 80 clients).

In 2024–25, among the 630 SHS clients who were at risk of homelessness, the main reasons for seeking assistance were:

• housing crisis (23% or 150 clients)
• financial difficulties (16% or 100 clients).

Services needed and provided

Services provided to clients range from the direct provision of accommodation, such as a bed in a shelter, to more specialised services such as counselling and legal support. These services are either provided to the client directly by the agency or the client is referred to another SHS agency or specialised service.

In 2024–25, the provision of support services to clients varied based on their identified need on presentation (Figure ADF.2, Supplementary table ADF.2 and CLIENTS.24):

• Advice/information was the most common service needed by clients (87% or around 1,300 clients) and was provided to 99% of those who needed it.
• Almost two-thirds (63%) of clients needed accommodation and it was provided to 53% of those who needed it.  This compares with 2023-24 when 61% of clients needed accommodation.

Compared with all SHS clients, clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF were more likely to need:

• advocacy/liaison (67% compared with 53% among all SHS clients)
• assistance to sustain a tenancy or prevent tenancy failure or eviction (40% compared with 29%)
• long-term housing (49% compared with 39%)

Housing situation

In 2024–25, of those clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF (Supplementary tables ADF.3 and CLIENTS.11):

• On presentation to services more than half of clients (57%) were experiencing homelessness (compared with 49% of all SHS clients):
  • 25% (370 clients) were rough sleeping 
  • 20% (around 295 clients) were in short-term or emergency accommodation. 
• Just under half (43%) presented to services at risk of homelessness (compared with 51% of all SHS clients):
  • 26% (390 clients) were in private or other housing 
  • 8.7% were in public or community housing.