
Access to services can become increasingly difficult the further away a client is from a major city (ABS 2018). For Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS), state and territory systems for the assessment, intake, referral and ongoing case management of SHS clients vary, ranging from agency-based to centralised management models (PC 2019). This section provides an overview of the geographical distribution of SHS support services provided across Australia, based on the location of the agency.
Reporting service location in the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC)
This section examines client service needs and characteristics based on the location of the SHS agency, where the service was received, that is, the profile of clients receiving support as provided by services in specific areas. Clients can access services in more than one remoteness area, however, for the purpose of the analysis, clients are assigned to one remoteness area based on the SHS agency where they first sought support in 2020–21. The 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) (ABS 2018) is used to classify agencies by remoteness area based on the location details of each agency (see Technical information).
State-wide SHS operate in some states/territories and can assist a high number of clients over the phone. Therefore, service location data may not be accurate or relevant for some clients.
In interpreting regional service trends throughout this section, ‘urban areas’ refer to Major cities and Inner and Outer regional areas and ‘remote areas’ refer to Remote and Very remote areas, unless otherwise stated.
Specialist homelessness services across urban and remote areas
In 2020–21, clients receiving assistance from SHS agencies in urban and remote areas had different characteristics:
- The proportion of clients (with known housing situation) who were homeless upon presentation was lower among the clients receiving support from services in Remote areas (27%) compared with Major cities (44%) (Supplementary table REG.5).
- The median length of accommodation received by clients of services in Major cities was 48 nights, compared with 5 nights in Remote areas (Supplementary table REG.6).
- More than 9 in 10 clients (92%) receiving services in Remote and Very remote areas identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and 1 in 5 (20%) were 0–9 years of age (Supplementary tables INDIGENOUS.5 and REG.2).
- Almost 9 in 10 (86%) SHS clients born overseas received support from SHS agencies located in Major cities (Supplementary table CLIENTS.6).
- Of those clients with a current mental health issue (around 88,200 clients), almost 2 in 3 (65%) received support from SHS agencies in Major cities and around 1 in 4 (26%) in Inner regional areas (Supplementary table CLIENTS.42).
- The most common main reasons clients sought assistance in the various remoteness areas (Supplementary table REG.1) were:
- Major cities: family and domestic violence (30%), followed by housing crisis (18%).
- Inner and Outer regional areas: family and domestic violence (27% and 26% respectively) and housing crisis (20% and 19% respectively).
- Remote and Very remote areas: family and domestic violence (34%) and inadequate or inappropriate dwelling conditions (9.3%).