Homelessness services
Across Australia, SHS agencies provide services aimed at prevention and early intervention, crisis and post crisis assistance to support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The agencies receive government funding to deliver accommodation-related and personal services. They vary in size and in the types of assistance provided.
As noted above, SHS agencies provide assistance to both people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of homelessness. Each year (since the start of the collection in 2011–12), SHS have assisted a greater proportion of clients at risk of homelessness than those experiencing homelessness.
How many people received assistance?
SHS agencies supported more than 1.4 million Australians between 2011–12 and 2020–21 (AIHW 2021a). In 2020–21, almost 278,300 clients were assisted, equating to a rate of 108.3 clients per 10,000 population, or 1.1% of the Australian population. Most clients (57% or 144,500 clients) were at risk of homelessness when first presenting to SHS in 2020–21. Another 111,100 clients (43%) were experiencing homelessness. (Housing status at the start of support was unknown for around 22,700 SHS clients.)
Of the 278,300 clients SHS agencies assisted in 2020–21:
- 6 in 10 were female (60% or 167,400 clients)
- 1 in 6 were children under the age of 10 (16% or 44,200 clients)
- 1 in 8 were children and youth aged 10–17 (12% or 34,300 clients)
- the largest age group of adult clients were aged 25–34 (18% of all clients or 51,900 clients)
- about 13,300 were women aged 55 or older (8% of total female clients) and 10,600 were men aged 55 or older (9.5% of total male clients)
- 1 in 3 (33% or 84,900) clients were living in single-parent with 1 or more children families when they sought support (AIHW 2021a).
Australians known to be at particular risk of homelessness include those who have experienced family and domestic violence, young people, children on care and protection orders, Indigenous Australians, people leaving health or social care arrangements, and Australians aged 55 or older.
In 2020–21, about 91,400 SHS clients had experienced family and domestic violence at some point during the reporting period (Table 2). Some SHS client groups were more likely to be experiencing homelessness than other groups at the beginning of support, in particular, young people aged 15–24 presenting alone (51%), clients with current mental health issues (50%) and children on care and protection orders (50%).
Table 2: Characteristics of client groups of interest, 2020–21
| Client group(a) |
Number of clients |
Female (%)
|
Homeless at the beginning of support (%)
|
Median length of support (days)
|
Receiving accommodation (%)
|
|
Family and domestic violence
|
116,200
|
77 |
37 |
60 |
36 |
| Current mental health issues |
88,200 |
62 |
50 |
85 |
37 |
| Indigenous Australians |
73,300 |
61 |
47 |
55 |
41 |
| Young people presenting alone (15–24 years) |
41,700 |
64
|
51 |
60 |
32 |
| Older people (55 years or older) |
23,900 |
56 |
35 |
41 |
20 |
|
Children (0–17 years) on care and protection orders(b)
|
8,300 |
53 |
50 |
102 |
49 |
(a) Clients may be in one or more client vulnerability group. Client vulnerabilities groups are domestic and family violence, mental health, and problematic drug and/or alcohol.
(b) A client is identified as being under a care or protection order if they are aged under 18 and have provided any of the following information in any support period (any month within the support period) during the reporting period (either the week before, at the beginning of the support period or during support): they reported that they were under a care and protection order and that they had care arrangements, or they reported ‘Transition from foster care/child safety residential placements’ as a reason for seeking assistance, or main reason for seeking assistance.
Source: AIHW 2021a.
Trends in clients assisted by SHS agencies
The number of clients assisted by SHS agencies each year has decreased from around 288,300 people in 2016–17 to about 278,300 in 2020–21 (Table 3). Over the same period, the:
- rate of all SHS clients decreased from 119.2 to 108.3 clients per 10,000 population
- number of support days increased by 4.3 million days, from 23.4 to 27.7 million.
Table 3: SHS clients, by number, rate and housing situation at the beginning of support, 2016–17 to 2020–21
| |
2016–17 |
2017–18 |
2018–19 |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
| Number of clients |
288,273 |
288,795 |
290,317 |
290,462 |
278,275 |
| Rate (per 10,000 population) |
119.2 |
117.4 |
116.2 |
114.5 |
108.3 |
| Housing situation at the beginning of the first support period (proportion all clients) |
|
|
|
Homeless
|
44 |
43 |
42 |
43 |
43 |
|
At risk of homelessness
|
56 |
57 |
58 |
57 |
57 |
| Total days of support (millions) |
23.4 |
24.7 |
26.0 |
26.1 |
27.7 |
|
Length of support (median number of days)
|
37 |
39 |
44 |
43 |
51 |
|
Median number of nights accommodated
|
33 |
32 |
29 |
28 |
31 |
Notes:
1. Rates are crude rates based on the Australian estimated resident population (ERP) at 30 June of the reference year. Minor adjustments in rates may occur between publications reflecting revision of the estimated resident population by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
2. Data for 2016–17 have been adjusted for non-response. Due to improvements in the rates of agency participation and SLK validity, data from 2017–18 are not weighted. The removal of weighting does not constitute a break in time series and weighted data in 2016–17 are comparable with unweighted data for 2017–18 onwards. For further information, please refer to the Technical Notes.
Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2016–17 to 2020–21.
Between 2012–13 and 2020–21, the rate of SHS clients was highest in 2016–17, decreasing in more recent years. The overall rate for female clients increased from around 125.3 clients per 10,000 population in 2012–13 to 129.2 in 2020–21; the rate of male clients declined from 89.4 in 2012–13 to 87.1 in 2020–21 (Figure 2).