Labour force status
In 2020–21, fewer than 1 in 10 clients (7.9%) with known labour force status and who identified as current or former members of the ADF were employed when they first presented to a SHS agency in the financial year. The majority of clients (51% or over 600 clients) were unemployed, while two fifths of clients (41% or around 500 clients) were not in the labour force (Supplementary table ADF.6).
Selected vulnerabilities
SHS clients can face additional vulnerabilities that make them more susceptible to experiencing homelessness, in particular family and domestic violence, a current mental health issue and problematic drug and/or alcohol use.

Service use patterns
The length of support clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF received increased from a median of 53 days of support in 2017–18 to 64 days in 2020–21. These clients had an average of 3.0 support periods per client in 2020–21. The proportion of clients receiving accommodation increased from 36% in 2017–18 to 41% in 2020–21 for a median of 32 nights per client (Supplementary table CLIENTS.44).
New and returning clients
In 2020–21, clients were either presenting to SHS agencies for the first time as new clients or had previously been assisted by a SHS agency at some point since the collection began in July 2011.
Around a third of clients in 2020–21 were new (33% or over 400 clients), less than the general SHS population (39%) (Supplementary tables CLIENTS.2 and CLIENTS.38). One in 5 (21%) new clients were aged 45–54 years and an additional 1 in 5 (20%) were aged 35–44 years.
Of the 900 clients returning to SHS agencies for assistance, males were more likely to be aged 45–54 (32% or around 200 clients), while females were more likely to be aged 35–44 (28% less than 100).
Main reasons for seeking assistance
SHS agencies provide a range of support services. For clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF receiving SHS support in 2020–21 (Supplementary tables ADF.4 and ADF.5):
- The main reason for seeking assistance was housing crisis (21% or around 300 clients), followed by inadequate or inappropriate dwelling conditions (14% or around 200 clients).
- Both homeless and at risk clients identified housing crisis as either their main reason or second main reason for seeking assistance (26% or around 200 clients and 17% or almost 100 clients respectively).
- Clients at risk of homelessness were more likely to report financial difficulties as a main reason for seeking assistance (16%) than clients presenting as homeless (8%).
Services needed and provided
In 2020–21, the provision of support services to clients varied based on their identified need on presentation (Figure ADF.3, Supplementary table ADF.2):
- Advice/information was most likely to be needed by clients (89% or almost 1,200 clients) and was provided to 99% of those who needed it.
- More than 2 in 3 (70%) clients needed accommodation and it was provided to almost two thirds of those who needed it (60%).
Compared with the general SHS population, clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF were more likely to need:
- Advocacy liaison (70% compared with 55% in the general SHS population)
- Long term housing (53% compared with 39%)
- Short term or emergency accommodation (52% compared with 40%).