A new report led by a researcher at The University of Western Australia has outlined a five-step national plan to end homelessness.
Professor Paul Flatau (pictured), from UWA’s Business School and acting CEO of the Centre for Social Impact, is lead author of the report Ending Homelessness in Australia: An evidence and policy deep dive. The report was prepared by the Centre for Social Impact in partnership with The Australian Alliance to End Homelessness and community mental health support provider Neami National.
“The report presents evidence from the largest community-based database on rough sleeping and homelessness in Australia,” Professor Flatau said.
“It highlights the deep health and social impacts of homelessness on people’s lives and underlines the need for programs that not only rapidly house those experiencing homelessness, but also provide long-term supportive care for those with high health and social needs.”
The report, which was launched today, presents findings from the Advance to Zero homelessness database, covering more than 20,000 people experiencing homelessness in Australia’s cities – including many who had been rough sleeping for long periods.
It found, on average, people had experienced homelessness for 3.8 years with around 40% of respondents reporting many years of homelessness.
The prevalence of long-term serious medical conditions and diagnosed mental health conditions were significantly higher than those seen across the general population, especially in terms of hepatitis C, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and depression.
Serious brain injury or head trauma was also very high among those experiencing homelessness, particularly among veterans.
“Homelessness is a complex problem and, if we are to end it, we need to understand and engage all the levers available to us (whether they’re currently being used or not),” the report states.
The research report puts forward five key actions which are required to end homelessness in Australia:
- Leadership and proactivity at the Australian Government level and a national end homelessness strategy;
- An increase in the supply of social and affordable housing directed to an end homelessness goal;
- Comprehensive application of Housing First programs linked to supportive housing for those entering permanent housing with long histories of homelessness and high health and other needs;
- Targeted prevention and early intervention programs to turn off the tap of entry into homelessness which address the underlying drivers of homelessness;
- Supportive systems and programs which build the enablers of an end homelessness program: advocacy, commitment and resource flow to ending homelessness; effective service integration; culturally safe and appropriate service delivery; and improving data quality, evaluation and research around ending homelessness in Australia.
A large proportion of respondents reported they had been in out-of-home care and/or juvenile detention as children and adolescents, reflecting long periods of lifetime vulnerability.
You can read the Ending Homelessness in Australia report on the Centre for Social Impact’s website.
