| Accommodation services |
Accommodation services include short-term or emergency accommodation, medium-term/transitional housing, assistance to obtain long term housing, assistance to sustain tenancy or prevent tenancy failure or eviction and assistance to prevent foreclosures or for mortgage arrears. |
| At risk of homelessness |
Clients are considered to be at risk of homelessness if they are living in any of the following circumstances:
- Public or community housing (renter or rent free):
- dwelling type is house/townhouse/flat and tenure type is renter or rent-free public housing, renter or rent-free-community housing.
- Private or other housing (renter, rent-free or owner):
- dwelling type is house/townhouse/flat and tenure type is renter-private housing, life tenure scheme, owner―shared equity or rent/buy scheme, owner-being purchased/with mortgage, owner-fully owned, rent-free-private/other housing.
- Institutional settings:
- dwelling type is hospital, psychiatric hospital, disability support, rehabilitation, boarding school, adult correctional facility, youth/juvenile justice detention centre or immigration detention centre.
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| Client |
A specialist homelessness agency client is a person who receives a specialist homelessness service. A client can be of any age. Children are also clients if they receive a service from a specialist homelessness agency.
To be a client the person must directly receive a service and not just be a beneficiary of a service.
Children who present with an adult and receive a service are considered to be a client; children of a client or other household members who present but do not directly receive a service are not considered to be clients.
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| Client with a current mental health issue |
SHS clients with a current mental health issue are identified as such if they have provided any of the following information:
- they indicated at the beginning of a support period they were receiving services or assistance for their mental health issues, or had received them in the last 12 months;
- their formal referral source to the specialist homelessness agency was a mental health service;
- they reported ‘mental health issues’ as a reason for seeking assistance;
- their dwelling type either a week before presenting to an agency, or when presenting to an agency, was a psychiatric hospital or unit;
- they had been in a psychiatric hospital or unit in the last 12 months;
- at some stage during their support period, a need was identified for psychological services, psychiatric services or mental health services.
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| Homeless |
The client’s homeless status at the beginning and end of their support.
Clients are considered to be homeless if they are living in any of the following circumstances:
- No shelter or improvised dwelling:
- includes where dwelling type is no dwelling/street/park/in the open, motor vehicle, improvised building/dwelling, caravan, cabin, boat or tent; or tenure type is renting or living rent-free in a caravan park.
- Short-term temporary accommodation:
- dwelling type is boarding/rooming house, emergency accommodation, hotel/motel/bed and breakfast; or tenure type is renting or living rent-free in boarding/rooming house, renting or living rent-free in emergency accommodation or transitional housing.
- House, townhouse or flat (couch surfing or with no tenure):
- tenure type is no tenure; or conditions of occupancy is couch surfing.
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| Other support services |
Other support services refer to the assistance, other than accommodation services, provided to a client. They include domestic/family violence services, mental health services, family/relationship assistance, disability services, drug/alcohol counselling, legal/financial services, immigration/cultural services, other specialist services and general assistance and support. |
| Specialist homelessness agency |
A specialist homelessness agency is an organisation which receives government funding to deliver specialist homelessness services to a client. These can be either not-for-profit and for profit agencies. |
| Specialist homelessness service(s) |
Specialist homelessness service(s) is assistance provided by a specialist homelessness agency to a client aimed at responding to or preventing homelessness. The specialist homelessness services in scope for this collection include accommodation provision, assistance to sustain housing, mental health services, family/relationship assistance, disability services, drug/alcohol counselling, legal/financial services, immigration/cultural services, domestic/family violence services, other specialist services and general assistance and support. |
| Support period |
A support period is the period of time a client receives assistance from an agency. A support period starts on the day the client first receives a service from an agency and ends when:
- the relationship between the client and the agency ends,
- the client has reached their maximum amount of support the agency can offer, or
- a client has not received any services from the agency for a whole calendar month and there is no ongoing relationship.
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