Specialist homelessness services annual report 2019-20

The long-term welfare of Australian Defence Force (ADF) members is of importance as the nature of military service may mean serving and ex-serving personnel are exposed to a greater number of risk factors that may influence their likelihood of experiencing homelessness, including:

• Complex personal needs – mental health issues and other complex vulnerabilities can be reflective of the unique demands of service (McFarlane et al. 2011).
• Financial stress – employment can become an issue for ADF members when transitioning from service to civilian life (Searle et al. 2019).

At 30 June 2019, there were more than 58,500 permanent current ADF members (Defence 2019). In addition, there were estimated to be around 631,800 living veterans, including all living persons who have ever served in the ADF either full-time or as reservists (DVA 2019).

Serving ADF personnel have access to housing and rental assistance through Defence Housing Australia. However, once personnel discharge from the ADF they are no longer able to access this housing support. Current or former ADF members can access a range of housing and homelessness services through government and non-government organisations (Defence 2017). To provide a better understanding of the extent to which current or former ADF members may need support from specialist homelessness services (SHS), the Australian Defence Force (ADF) indicator was introduced into the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) in July 2017.

It is important to note that variability in the implementation of this item has meant that coverage is still considered to be incomplete and limited analyses have been conducted to date. As is common with new data items, upon implementation there was a high number of ‘don’t know’ (14% in 2017–18) responses to the ADF question. In 2019–20, the number of ‘don’t know’ (9%) responses decreased. A ‘don’t know’ response is selected if the information is not known or the client refuses to provide the information. Expectations are that data quality will continue to improve over time, at which time further analyses may be undertaken. Further details about the ADF indicator in the SHSC are provided in the Technical information section.

The Use of specialist homelessness services by ex-serving ADF members 2011–12 to 2016–17 report linked SHSC and Defence personnel data to identify contemporary ex-serving ADF members (those who discharged after 1 January 2001) who had used services between 2011–12 and 2016–17. The report provides a longer-term view of clients, prior to the implementation of the ADF indicator in the SHSC.

Client characteristics

In 2019–20 (Table ADF.1):

• SHS agencies assisted 1,373 clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF.
• Clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF made up less than 1% of all SHS clients.

Table ADF.1: Clients who identified as current or former members of the Australian Defence Force—2017–18 to 2019–20

	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20
Number of clients	1,295	1,406	1,373
Proportion of all clients	0.4	0.5	0.5

Note: 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.

Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2017–18 to 2019–20.

Age and sex

In 2019–20, of clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF (Supplementary table ADF.1):

• Two-thirds (64% or almost 900 clients) were male (compared with 40% in the general SHS population) and more than a quarter (27% or almost 400 clients) were aged 45–54 (Figure ADF.1).
• Young females (aged 18–34) (41% of females or 200 clients) were more likely to receive SHS support compared with young males (19% of males or 170 clients).

Figure ADF.1: Clients who identified as current or former members of the Australian Defence Force, by age and sex, 2019–20

Notes

1. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) indicator was introduced into the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) in July 2017.
2. The ADF indicator is not applicable to clients who may have served in non-Australian defence forces or reservists who have never served as a permanent ADF member.

Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2019–20.

States and territories

In 2019–20, the highest number of clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF accessed services in Victoria (47% or more than 600 clients), followed by New South Wales (21% or almost 300 clients) (Table ADF.2).

Table ADF.2: Clients who identified as current or former members of the Australian Defence Force—2017–18 to 2019–20

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	National
Number	293	639	241	87	75	52	23	26	1,373

Note: Clients may access services in more than one state or territory. Therefore the total will be less than the sum of jurisdictions.

Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection.

More than half (53%) of clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF were experiencing homelessness at the time of seeking SHS support, which was higher than the general SHS population (43%) (Supplementary table CLIENTS.12).

Housing situation

In 2019–20, of clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF (Supplementary table ADF.4):

• On presentation to services for assistance more than half of clients (53%) were experiencing homelessness (compared with 43% of the general SHS population). Of those presenting homeless:
  • 39% (almost 300 clients) were rough sleeping (compared with 22% of the general SHS population)
  • 35% (around 250 clients) were in short-term or emergency accommodation (compared with 39% of the general SHS population).
• Just under half (47%) presented to services at risk of homelessness (compared with 57% of the general SHS population). Of those:
  • 59% were in private or other housing (compared with 61% of the general SHS population)
  • 22% were in public or community housing (compared with 24% of the general SHS population).

New and returning clients

In 2019–20, 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 2011–12 (Supplementary table ADF.7).

Of those clients returning to SHS agencies for assistance (65% or almost 900 clients), males were more likely to be aged 45–54 (32% or almost 200 clients), while females were more likely to be aged 25–34 (28% or almost 100 clients).

More than a third of clients in 2019–20 were new (35% or almost 500 clients, less than the general SHS population (42%). One in 4 (25%) new clients were aged 45–54 years and an additional 1 in 5 (22%) were aged 35–44 years.

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.

In 2019–20, of the almost 1,400 clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF, almost 2 in 3 (66%) reported experiencing one or more of these vulnerabilities:

• Over half (55%) reported a current mental health issue, as a single vulnerability or in combination with other vulnerabilities, higher than the overall SHS population (37%).
• 1 in 4 reported experiencing a current mental health issue only (26% or almost 400 clients).
• More than 1 in 10 (13%) reported both a current mental health issue and problematic drug and/or alcohol use.
• 5% reported experiencing all 3 vulnerabilities.

Table ADF.3: Clients who identified as current or former members of the Australian Defence Force, by selected vulnerability characteristics, 2019–20

Family and domestic violence	Mental health issue	Problematic drug and or alcohol use	Clients	Per cent
Yes	Yes	Yes	64	4.7
Yes	Yes	No	159	11.6
Yes	No	Yes	9	0.7
No	Yes	Yes	171	12.5
Yes	No	No	114	8.3
No	Yes	No	358	26.1
No	No	Yes	37	2.7
No	No	No	461	33.6
			1,373	100.0

Notes

1.  Clients are assigned to one category only based on their vulnerability profile.

2.  Clients are aged 18 and over.

3.  Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2019–20.

Service use patterns

In 2019–20, clients who identified as current or former members of the ADF receiving SHS support (Table ADF.4):

• received a median of 59 days and 28 nights of support.
• had an average of 2.8 support periods per client.

Table ADF.4: Clients who identified as current or former members of the Australian Defence Force: service use patterns—2017–18 to 2019–20

	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20
Length of support (median number of days)	53	58	59
Average number of support periods per client	3.1	2.8	2.8
Proportion receiving accommodation	36	40	37
Median number of nights accommodated	31	23	28

Note: The denominator for the proportion receiving accommodation is all SHS clients who have identified as current or former members of the Australian Defence Force. Denominator values for proportions are provided in the relevant supplementary table.

Source: Specialist Homelessness Services Collection 2017–18 to 2019–20.

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 2019–20 (Supplementary table ADF.5 and ADF.6):

• The main reason for seeking assistance was housing crisis (22% or more than 300 clients), followed by financial difficulties (15% 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 200 clients and 18% or around 100 clients respectively).
• Clients at risk of homelessness were more likely to report financial difficulties as a main reason for seeking assistance (21% or more than 100 clients) than clients presenting as homeless (10% or less than 100 clients).

Services needed and provided

In 2019–20, the provision of support services to clients varied based on their identified need on presentation (Supplementary table ADF.3):

• Advice/information was most likely to be needed by clients (90% or more than 1,200 clients) and was provided to 99% of those who needed it (or around 1,200 clients).
• More than 2 in 3 (69%) clients needed accommodation and it was provided to more than half of those who needed it (54%). Three in 10 clients were unable to be provided or referred accommodation when a need was identified (32% or 300 clients).

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

• financial information (30% compared with 24% in the general SHS population)
• health/medical services (13% compared with 9%)
• mental health services (12% compared with 9%).

References

Defence (Department of Defence) 2019. Defence Annual Report 2018–19. Canberra: Department of Defence.

Defence 2017. ADF member and family transition guide: a practical manual to transitioning. Canberra: Department of Defence.

DVA (Department of Veterans Affairs) 2019. Department of Veterans’ Affairs Annual Report 2018–19. Canberra: Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

McFarlane A, Hodson S, Van Hooff M & Davies C 2011. Mental health in the Australian Defence Force: 2010 ADF Mental Health and Wellbeing Study: Full report, Department of Defence: Canberra.

Searle, A, Van Hooff M, Lawrence-Wood E, Hilferty F, Katz I, Zmudzki F & McFarlane A 2019. Homelessness amongst Australian contemporary veterans: pathways from military and transition risk factors, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Melbourne: AHURI.