Brisbane teenager Raymond* was once living in a homeless shelter with little hope for the future — that was before he found the Good Grub Club.

At just 12, Raymond — along with his sister — found their way to a homeless shelter on Brisbane’s southside after their mum was sent to jail.

The number of women aged 55 and over who experience homelessness in Australia has grown by 31% between 2011 and 2016. This trend is expected to continue unless social housing provision is expanded, given the gap in men’s and women’s lifetime wealth accumulation.

As part of National Homelessness Week (4-10th August), Dr Jane Bullen from the Women’s Electoral Lobby has called on Federal and State governments to respond to the homelessness crisis for women.

9,000 West Australians have experienced homelessness, but the CEO of Shelter WA says we can end homelessness.

There’s a stigma surrounding people who are homeless, but Michelle MacKenzie says it’s common circumstances that drives many to homelessness.

“If you look at income like Newstart, like Commonwealth Rent Assistance, we’re trapping people into poverty, so people want to work, people want to have homes, but they just can’t afford to rent and there’s not enough social housing, it’s just awful,” Ms MacKenzie told 6PR Breakfast.

Allan Connolly’s life was going according to plan. He and his wife Dawn had a lovely home in a wealthy Perth suburb. They were handling huge contracts for a distribution company. Mr Connolly was able to work from home to devote attention to their girls, then aged eight and 10.

“You know when you do a vision board?” he said. “I was living at the top of the cul-de-sac.”

But what happened next he never saw coming.

State and territory governments have presided over the loss of more than 20,000 public housing units in a decade, marking a “considerable change” as control over social housing is increasingly handed to non-profits.

A new study, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Thursday, found the declining number of publicly owned homes was offset by a 55,470 increase in homes run by non-profit providers.

Queensland has a severe shortage of social and affordable housing, an issue that is projected to get worse by 2036 according to new research.

More than 102,000 additional social houses are currently needed across the state, and 54,700 affordable houses are also needed with nearly 13 per cent of Queenslanders spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.

Housing and welfare groups yesterday warned that senator Jacqui Lambie’s push for Canberra to ­forgive Tasmania’s $157 million public housing debt was not a panacea for the state’s affordable-home shortage.

Number one on the Treasurer’s list should be to emulate the 2008 Social Housing Initiative, one of the most effective parts of the Rudd-era stimulus package. It resulted in 20,000 new social housing units being built and another 80,000 refurbished over two years, at a cost of $5.6 billion.

A domestic violence survivor. A cancer patient. A mother-of-two. SBS News speaks to those struggling with housing and homelessness in Tasmania’s capital city.