Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2022) Technical Paper: Alignment of the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the ABS Census definitions of homelessness, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 01 June 2023.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2022). Technical Paper: Alignment of the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the ABS Census definitions of homelessness. Canberra: AIHW.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Technical Paper: Alignment of the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the ABS Census definitions of homelessness. AIHW, 2022.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Technical Paper: Alignment of the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the ABS Census definitions of homelessness. Canberra: AIHW; 2022.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2022, Technical Paper: Alignment of the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the ABS Census definitions of homelessness, AIHW, Canberra.
PDF | 4.7Mb
Other formats
This technical paper outlines the alignment and differences between the AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the ABS Census definitions of homelessness, including key concepts and derivation code logic of both collections. It does not contain any homeless data. The SHSC provides information about people who are seeking assistance from homelessness service agencies who have received government funding and is focused on ongoing service provision to homeless people or those at risk of homelessness. The ABS Census takes a snapshot count of all people and housing on a given night and also estimates the homeless population every 5 years.
The purpose of this paper is to outline the alignment and differences in the definitions of homelessness between the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Census of Population and Housing (the Census). The paper describes key concepts and derivation code logic of both collections. The SHSC collects information about people who seek assistance from, or are referred to Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) agencies. Data is collected about people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness and the services provided to these people. SHS agencies receive a particular program of government funding and continuously collect information about their clients, submitting data to the AIHW monthly. The Census is undertaken every 5 years and counts every person and household in Australia on a given night. The information collected in the Census is used to identify all people in Australia who are homeless at that time.
End matter: References
This website needs JavaScript enabled in order to work correctly; currently it looks like it is disabled. Please enable JavaScript to use this website as intended.
We'd love to know any feedback that you have about the AIHW website, its contents or reports.
The browser you are using to browse this website is outdated and some features may not display properly or be accessible to you. Please use a more recent browser for the best user experience.