Homelessness

Australians experiencing homelessness are in the perfect storm of the interrelatedness of these issues, together with shortages in support services and crisis, transition, social, and affordable accommodation. 

As the leading cause, family and domestic violence was given as the main reason in nearly three out of ten presentations to homelessness services, amounting to 76,500 women, with over a third experiencing homelessness at the time.  Additionally, over two in five of those experiencing persistent homelessness were women and children affected by family and domestic violence.

Tragically, only 3 per cent of women and children victims of family and domestic violence receive the long-term housing solutions they need.

Mental health issues are also a major cause of homelessness. Nearly a third, or 80,000 Australians with a current mental health issue presented to homelessness services in 2024/25 and half of those experiencing persistent homelessness, or 20,500, having a current mental health issue. Poverty is a major factor, with nearly four-fifths receiving some form of government assistance as their main source of income. 

With women over forty-five the fastest-growing age group of people experiencing homelessness in Australia – often the result of financial insecurity, relationship breakdown, and limited access to affordable housing – financial avoidance, as the complex interplay of financial insecurity, social norms, and behaviours, can increase a woman's risk of experiencing homelessness.

Sitting on the Board of a leading homeless agency for ten years, it was so frustrating to see successive governments unwilling to tackle the chronic shortage of crisis, transition, social and affordable accommodation that would have provided a responsive, housing first approach that enabled wrap-around support services and pathways out of homelessness.  Instead, the system seemed to keep people in a state of homelessness (as getting a job would only move you down the priority list to get into public housing) until, after many years, they qualified for a place in social housing. Their reward is often appalling living conditions in areas of high unemployment with little prospect of a job.

Those experiencing homelessness, such as being evicted from their house or escaping family violence, contact their State or Territory’s homelessness service system through one designated phone number to be referred to a homelessness service provider in their area to access crisis (also called ‘emergency’) accommodation where they can stay for a few weeks. 

More than three quarters of homelessness services reported finding it ‘much harder’ to find suitable housing for clients in mid-2024 compared with 12 months earlier, which saw 190 requests per day on average turned away, or 71,000 per annum, meaning that for nearly a third of Australians who needed short-term or emergency accommodation no accommodation could be found, nor were they referred to another agency for help.

Worryingly, the proportion of unassisted requests made by people presenting alone rose from 56 per cent of requests in 2018–19 to 65 per cent in 2024–25.

This lack of government-funded crisis beds means that providers are funded to purchase short-term crisis accommodation from private operators of boarding houses, hotels, motels, hostels, and caravan parks. This accommodation is often unsanitary, unsafe and inappropriate and provides inadequate support for those who receive it. As a result, people are moved between venues. In 2019, fifty homelessness and family violence organisations in Melbourne took the unprecedented step of turning homeless people away rather than referring people to unsafe and squalid motels and boarding houses as a form of emergency housing.

The next step is transitional housing for up to two years, or however long a permanent public housing place is available. Transitional accommodation is government-funded and operated by the government or by a charity community housing association (CHO), which, with tailored support services, helps people to stabilise their lives before moving into longer-term housing in the private rental market, affordable or social housing.  Again, there is a shortage of places and, again, they are likely to be moved between facilities.  In Victoria, this means that women and children spend, on average, three months in unsafe and inappropriate motels before transitional accommodation places are available. 

As a result, people are becoming stuck in homelessness for longer, requiring longer periods of agency support, and/or more repeated periods of short-term support.

Social housing is government funded and either managed by government or CHOs.  With 75 per cent of the rent subsidised by the Commonwealth Rent Assistance program up to a set amount, the rent paid is 25-30 per cent of the renter’s income, including benefits.

Affordable housing is accommodation typically built, owned and run by CHOs and is designed for key workers on low incomes, such as teachers, firefighters and nurses, with rent set at 75-80 per cent of market value.  As of 2022, 160+ CHOs own over 40,740 homes, comprising 14 billion in land and buildings, and manage 132,000 social and affordable housing tenancies.

The long-term underinvestment by governments in social housing, which has declined to 4.1 per cent of all homes in 2025, down from 4.7 per cent in 2013, has resulted in longer waiting lists and homelessness, and a bottleneck causing longer stays in crisis and transitional accommodation, which are also insufficient. The 2024 Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services reported that 224,326 households are on the waiting list for social housing across Australia, with the greatest need increasing by four per cent to 106,534 compared to last year's figures.

Established in 1990 in New York City, Common Ground exemplified a new Housing First approach by creating high-quality permanent and transitional housing for the homeless with the philosophy that supportive housing costs substantially less than homeless shelters, and many times less than jail cells or hospital rooms. In 2006, the first Common Ground model of permanent supportive housing was opened in Adelaide followed by Elizabeth St Common Ground in Melbourne opened in 2010; the Camperdown Common Ground opened in Sydney in 2011; the Brisbane Common Ground in 2012; and Common Ground Tasmania opened two buildings in 2012.

Another Housing First model is the Youth Foyer.  Originating in France in the 1890s, Youth Foyers provide a safe and stable home with integrated education, employment and living skills support for young people aged 15–24. Two-thirds gain secure, decent employment. The Foyer Foundation lists the current 17 Youth Foyers

In an example of the power of giving, The Foyer Foundation established FoyerInvest, a consortium of not-for-profits, investors and philanthropists working toward the goal of fifty Accredited Youth Foyers in Australia by 2030. Charity Hand Heart Pocket initiated FoyerInvest’s Queensland Working Group which brought together the six youth services and community housing providers already expert in delivering Foyers, along with Foyer tenants, with the aim of advocating for more in the state.  This initiative has resulted in a $320 million commitment from the Queensland state government that was announced earlier in 2024.