Listening to lived experience: What needs to be done to end homelessness in Australia?

Abstract

While there is an increasing recognition of the value of lived and living experience involvements in solving issues such as homelessness, there is currently very little research exploring what these contributions might be. To build a greater understanding of these lived and living experience contributions to the end of homelessness, this study investigates what people with lived and/or living experiences believe needs to be done to end homelessness in Australia.

We found almost unanimous agreement that the availability and accessibility of housing, particularly that which is affordable and appropriate, is critical to the end of homelessness. Additionally, many of the participants named obstructive systemic issues, such as a lack of a will to act, as key barriers.

We argue that actions to ensure the availability of housing are a fundamental requirement for the potential of lived and living experience to meaningfully contribute to the issues of homelessness, and for the overall concern of seeing homelessness end.