Can Australia end homelessness? Yes, we know how, but we must find the will to do it

The ongoing homelessness crisis in Australia is a complex social problem with multiple causes. Such problems are very difficult to resolve. There’s no simple solution – no “silver bullet”.

Homelessness Week (August 5-11) briefly brings the issue to the public’s attention. A week later, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute is holding the Australian Homelessness Conference.

This activity is taking place in the lead-up to a new National Housing and Homelessness Plan. The Albanese government has promised to deliver this ten-year strategy by the end of 2024.

The plan is meant to set out “a shared vision to inform future housing and homelessness policy in Australia”. There will be a new National Housing and Homelessness Agreement between federal, state and territory governments.

A private members’ bill sponsored by independent MPs David Pocock and Kylea Tink seeks to establish the national plan in legislation. The bill has been referred to the Senate for review.

The new minister for housing and homelessness, Clare O'Neil, and the government have an historic opportunity to turn around the problem of homelessness. Such opportunities seem to come about once in a generation. It will be a challenge.

However, the government has more evidence than ever before on what will work to end homelessness. The needed reforms will not only save money but will also be broadly supported by Australians.

Many more people are homeless than we see

Most of us tend to think of homelessness as the individuals we see sleeping on city footpaths, in doorways, or in public spaces like parks. However, this group is a small minority of homeless Australians.

An estimated 122,494 people were homeless on census night in 2021. Of these people, only 7,636 were living in improvised dwellings or tents, or sleeping out.

Despite public perceptions, homelessness in Australia is recognised and counted as not just rough sleeping – unlike some other countries such as the United States. The Australian Bureau of Statistics uses six categories for presenting estimates of people experiencing homelessness on census night. The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection also includes people who are at risk of homelessness.

In 2023, 274,000 men, women and children sought help from homelessness services. Indigenous Australians are over-represented in these services.

Two of the largest groups of people seeking support are women and children escaping domestic violence and young people presenting alone. For young people, housing is generally not the cause of their homelessness. But, once homeless, they definitely have a housing problem.

What would it take to end homelessness?

Is it realistic to think of ending homelessness in Australia? Commissioner Brian Burdekin conducted the landmark 1989 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness. He has never ceased to argue that Australia has the capacity to end homelessness as a social problem.

But what would it take to actually begin to end homelessness?

The government has an unprecedented body of evidence and policy advice at its disposal. There were two parliamentary inquiries into homelessness during the COVID crisis. These were followed by a 2022 Productivity Commission review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement.

In 2021, a federal parliamentary inquiry highlighted three key areas for reform.

The first was prevention and early intervention, the “most effective and cost-efficient measures to address homelessness”.

The second was the “Housing First” approach, moving people experiencing long-term, chronic or recurring homelessness into supported housing as quickly as possible.

The third was about reducing the shortfall in social and affordable housing.

The inquiry also recognised more integrated “place-based” approaches to prevention as an important objective of a national strategy on homelessness.

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry earlier in 2021 concluded that “Victoria’s homelessness strategy must reorient away from crisis management”. The inquiry advised a two‑pronged approach:

1. “strengthen early intervention measures to identify individuals at risk”

2. “provide more long‑term housing for the homeless”.

The Productivity Commission review, In Need of Repair, concluded that the existing national agreement had not improved homelessness outcomes nor pursued reforms to reduce homelessness. The commission said “prevention and early intervention programs should be a higher priority under the next agreement”.

It urged governments to:

establish a separate pool of funding for prevention and early intervention programs to address the causes of homelessness for the main ‘at risk’ cohorts.

These included:

• people leaving health and correctional facilities and care
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• young people
• people needing support to maintain their tenancies.

We still need to put what we know into practice

The arguments and evidence about what needs to be done to reduce and ultimately end homelessness are compelling. Together with long-term investment in social and affordable housing, major investment in prevention is needed. This is particularly relevant for young people, especially those leaving state care (such as foster care), and women and children escaping from domestic violence.

Prevention will reduce the flow of many people into crisis services. Investment in prevention will also lead to significant cost savings in other areas of government budgets, such as health and justice as well as Centrelink.

The forthcoming national strategy may well be the beginning of the end of homelessness. There is a way, but is there the political will? If we persist with the status quo of crisis management, homelessness is destined be a costly forever problem.