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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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Chronic Homelessness in Melbourne: First-Year Outcomes of Journey to Social Inclusion Phase 2 Study Participants

The Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) Phase 2 program, delivered by Sacred Heart Mission (SHM), uses an intensive case management approach focused on capacity building and relationship development to facilitate the movement of chronically homeless people in Melbourne to permanent, stable housing and a pathway to broader social inclusion. The first year of the J2SI Phase 2 program focused on the attainment of permanent...

Inner City Rough Sleeper Street Count

Government of South Australia

This report reflects the findings of the 2017 Inner City Rough Sleeper Street Count in Adelaide, Australia. The Inner City Rough Sleeper Street Count is a survey questionnaire that monitors the number of people sleeping rough in the inner city of Adelaide. The survey is a point in time count that aims to monitor levels of rough sleeping in the Adelaide inner city area, as well as provide information about the circumstances...

Housing First: Permanent Supported Accomodation for People with Psychosis who have Experienced Chronic Homelessness

The objective of this study was to determine whether a ‘housing first’ permanent supported accommodation was effective in improving housing stability, continuity of care and reducing mental health admissions for persons experiencing chronic homelessness with psychosis. The study found that the accommodation of chronic homeless persons with psychosis in a ‘housing first’ permanent supported accommodation lead to increased...

Sleeping rough: a profile of Specialist Homelessness Services clients

Housing and Homelessness Reporting and Development Unit

Rough sleepers are the most visible population experiencing homelessness in Australia. This report explores the circumstances, experiences and housing outcomes of rough sleepers who sought assistance from specialist homelessness services between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2015. Based on service use patterns across a 4-year period, this comprehensive analysis highlights the diversity and the complexities of the rough sleeper...

Ending Street Homelessness in the Inner City: Adelaide Zero Project Implementation Plan

The Adelaide Zero Project seeks to end street homelessness in the inner city and ultimately end homelessness in South Australia. This collaborative program, funded by the Don Dunstan Foundation, follows similar program models implemented in cities, such as Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans. This document provides a summary of the project's goals and implementation plan, outlining the Functional Zero approach and ...

The Future of Women’s Refuges: A Vision for the Future, A Voice From the Future

Tillie Prowse

This article in the March 2018 edition of Parity discusses the future of women refugees. Among other things, the author calls for a recognition by politicians, legislators and policy writers that gender inequality is both the core of the problem and the heart of the solution. Advocating for an individualized customer-centric model, Prowse asserts that we must reject the idea that women’s experience of family domestic violence...

We are not all the same: Exploring Difference in Young People’s Experiences of Couch Surfing Versus Sleeping Rough

Rhianon Vichta and Katie Hail-Jares

Recent surveys of young Australians show more young people couch surfing than ever before, although not all classified themselves as homeless. Envisioning couch surfing as a form of extended sleep-over with a friend has contributed to the perception that couch surfing is a secondary and potentially less concerning form of homelessness; or even not a form of youth homelessness at all. While young people couch surfing may...

Australian Homelessness Monitor 2018

This study provides an independent analysis of homelessness in Australia. It analyses changes in the scale and nature of the problem and investigates the incidence of the many social, economic and policy drivers of homelessness. The study demonstrates how public policies, particularly housing and welfare policies, are firstly, critical drivers of homelessness in Australia, and secondly, areas that represent significant...

All Mixed Up Together: Women’s Experiences of Problem Gambling, Comorbidity and Co-occurring Complex Needs

Helen Breen

Louise Holdsworth

and Elaine Nuske

While there has been minimal recent gendered gambling research conducted in Australia and elsewhere, there is some evidence to suggest that gender differences do exist in various ways including gambling motivations such as gambling used as a coping strategy to alleviate or ‘escape’ from stress and anxiety, help-seeking and prevalence of comorbidity. In this Australian qualitative study we explored the experiences and concerns...

Understanding gambling related harm: a proposed definition, conceptual framework, and taxonomy of harms

Harm from gambling is known to impact individuals, families, and communities; and these harms are not restricted to people with a gambling disorder. Currently, there is no robust and inclusive internationally agreed upon definition of gambling harm. In addition, the current landscape of gambling policy and research uses inadequate proxy measures of harm, such as problem gambling symptomology, that contribute to a limited...

Trauma and Homelessness Initiative: Research Findings

The importance of understanding the impact of trauma is increasingly recognised amongst services working with people who experience homelessness. This is particularly the case for those who experience long-term homelessness, or those at risk for experiencing long-term homelessness. The ultimate goal of the Trauma and Homelessness Initiative (THI) is to investigate the relationship between trauma and long-term homelessness and...

OECD: Affordable Housing Database

Access to good-quality affordable housing is a fundamental need and key to achieving a number of social policy objectives, including reducing poverty and enhancing equality of opportunity, social inclusion and mobility. Housing needs are frequently unmet, and today a significant number of people across the OECD are homeless and too many households live in low-quality dwellings or face housing costs they can ill afford. The...

Homelessness in New Zealand and emergency transitional housing responses

This report provides some initial analysis on growth in homelessness over recent years, a summary of current emergency and transitional housing responses and some high-level options that could be developed futher to respond to hoelessness in the short term.

The financing, delivery and effectiveness of programs to reduce homelessness

AHURI

This report presents evidence from the Australian Homelessness Funding and Delivery Survey of how services supporting those experiencing homelessness are funded, and how different forms of funding and the level of funding impacts on the delivery of homelessness assistance.

The cost of homelessness and the net benefit of homelessness programs: a national study

Homelessness occurs when an individual does not have access to safe, adequate or secure shelter. Homelessness can lead to much higher use of mainstream public support services, such as health and justice services, than is evident in the general population (Flatau et al. 2008; Zaretzky et al. 2008). At the same time, services supporting homeless people may assist them to achieve positive change in their life and so reduce the...

The Integration Of Homelessness, Mental Health And Drug And Alcohol Services In Australia

The study is concerned with developing a typology of integration, scoping the need for, and current existence of, integration in Australia, and providing indicative findings on the effectiveness of integration involving homeless people with mental health conditions including substance use disorders. The present Positioning Paper reviews the literature on integration and provides preliminary descriptive results from case...

Homelessness, Health Status And Emergency Department Use: An Integrated Review Of The Literature

Gaye Moore BN

Marie Gerdtz

Elizabeth Manias

Homeless people have complex health care needs, and they have difficulty accessing and utilising health services appropriately. These factors are associated with living in poverty, and in particular, residing in poor quality transient housing. Due to the complexity of their social disadvantage a flexible and timely response is required by emergency departments that extend beyond the traditional models of health care. The...

On The Margins? Housing Risk Among Caravan Park Residents

Ed Wensing

Martin Wood

Darren Holloway

This material was produced with funding from the Commonwealth of Australia and the Australian States and Territories. AHURI Ltd gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from the Australian, State and Territory governments, without which this work would not have been possible. This paper is a preliminary review of a study being undertaken by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute:...

An Overview of Global Homelessness and Strategies for Systemic Change

Katherine Johnson

Mark McGreevy

Molly Seeley

Homelessness is a problem that can be solved with the right mix of program interventions, well-coordinated local systems, and effective policy. We know homelessness can be ended because there are cities that have ended it. Others have seen meaningful reductions in homelessness among certain targeted populations, such as chronically homeless individuals or veterans. In broad terms, the processes and interventions required to...

Precarious social inclusion: chronic homelessness and impaired decision-making capacity

This paper presents findings from an online survey of practitioners working in the homelessness sector in Australia, that explored practitioner perspectives of policy and service delivery to people with impaired decision-making capacity who experience chronic homelessness. This paper identifies from the research that unrealistic, inflexible and conditional policy, program and service responses from both the public and...

Understanding Homelessness

IGH Framework

Strategy & Planning

Program Models

Evaluation

Using Data in Homelessness Work

About Us

The Institute of Global Homelessness

IGH Framework

Strategy & Planning

Program Models

Evaluation

Using Data in Homelessness Work

The Institute of Global Homelessness

Regions

Homelessness is a global challenge.

Search for country-specific resources