Call unanswered: Unmet demand for specialist homelessness services

Abstract

In 2022-23 over 250,000 Australians sought and received assistance from a Specialist Homelessness Service. However, with an increasing number of Australians in need of help, too often no one is there to take their call. These Australians must navigate losing their home without support.

New modelling for this report estimates that in 2022 there were between 2.7 million and 3.2 million Australians at risk of homelessness, where one negative shock could result in them losing their home. This represents a 63 per cent increase between 2016 and 2022 in the number of Australians at risk of homelessness.

Specialist Homelessness Services are stretched, and official figures are not capturing the full extent of unmet demand for help. An exclusive survey of 23 Specialist Homelessness Services conducted over a two-week period in September 2024 found that:

• 39 per cent of services were forced to close their doors to people seeking help at least once during the fortnight.
• 83 per cent of services were unable to answer phone calls for some period during the survey, leaving people in crisis without immediate assistance.
• 74 per cent of services were unable to reply to emails during the survey, impacting housing referrals and support requests.

Addressing the housing crisis requires a multi-pronged approach, which includes greater investment in preventing and resolving periods of homelessness. Alongside increases in rent assistance and building more social housing, we need to ensure that calls for help do not continue to go unanswered.