PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Final report Inquiry into homelessness in Australia House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs July 2021 CANBERRA © Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 978-1-76092-257-3 (Printed Version) ISBN 978-1-76092-258-0 (HTML Version) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. Contents Foreword .......................................................................................................................................... vii Membership of the Committee ....................................................................................................... xi Terms of reference .......................................................................................................................... xiii List of abbreviations ........................................................................................................................ xv List of recommendations ............................................................................................................... xix The Report 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Referral and conduct of the inquiry.................................................................................... 1 Previous inquiries and reports ............................................................................................ 2 Defining and describing homelessness in Australia ........................................................ 3 Structure of this report ......................................................................................................... 4 2 Context of homelessness ........................................................................................ 7 Definitions of homelessness................................................................................................. 7 Definitions used in the Australian context ............................................................ 8 Evidence on definitions .......................................................................................... 11 Homelessness data .............................................................................................................. 25 Numbers, rates and trends .................................................................................... 25 Data collection and reporting ................................................................................ 36 Governance and funding ................................................................................................... 49 Overview of government responsibilities .......................................................... 49 iii iv Evidence on governance and funding arrangements ....................................... 60 Other Australian Government initiatives ............................................................ 69 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 77 3 Causes, risks and vulnerable groups ................................................................. 89 Causes of homelessness ...................................................................................................... 89 Poverty and limited income .................................................................................. 92 Lack of affordable and social housing ................................................................. 94 Vulnerable groups ............................................................................................................... 98 Women and children affected by family and domestic violence ..................... 99 Children and young people................................................................................. 104 Indigenous Australians ........................................................................................ 107 People experiencing repeat homelessness ......................................................... 111 People exiting institutions and other care arrangements ................................ 113 People aged 55 or older ........................................................................................ 117 People living with disability ............................................................................... 124 People living with mental illness ........................................................................ 128 Veterans.................................................................................................................. 132 LGBTIQ+ people ................................................................................................... 134 Migrants, temporary visa holders and people seeking asylum ..................... 137 Rough sleepers ...................................................................................................... 140 Rural and remote areas ........................................................................................ 143 Other factors and vulnerabilities .................................................................................... 148 Committee comment ........................................................................................................ 150 4 Addressing homelessness .................................................................................. 159 Prevention and early intervention .................................................................................. 159 Adopting a ‘Housing First’ approach ............................................................................. 167 Enhancing social housing ................................................................................................ 177 Need for increased investment in social housing ............................................ 178 Public housing ....................................................................................................... 183 v Community housing ............................................................................................ 186 Planning and zoning reform ............................................................................... 196 Developing a national strategy ....................................................................................... 199 Committee comment ........................................................................................................ 206 Additional comments – Labor members .................................................................... 215 Appendix A. List of submissions ................................................................................ 219 Appendix B. List of public hearings ........................................................................... 229 List of Tables Table 2.1 Number of homeless persons and rate of homeless persons per 10,000 of the population, by state and territory of usual residence ................. 26 Table 2.2 Housing policy responsibilities of the three levels of government ..... 50 Table 2.3 Roles and responsibilities set out in the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement ......................................................................... 51 Table 2.4 Outstanding state and territory housing-related debts as at 30 June 2018 ($ million) .............................................................................. 65 Table 3.1 End Street Sleeping Collaboration November 2019 Survey Results.. 140 Table 4.1 Numbers of public housing dwellings, by state and territory ........... 183 List of Figures Figure 4.1 Model of a ‘Housing Led’ systemic approach ...................................... 171 List of Textboxes Box 2.1 Canadian National Occupancy Standard ................................................ 14 Foreword Each night, tens of thousands of Australians are without a place to call home. Many thousands more are at risk of becoming homeless. Behind these statistics lies the true cost of homelessness. Homelessness can have profound and long-term impacts on a person’s safety and security, physical and mental health, on their connection to the community, and on their ability to thrive in school or in the workplace. This inquiry was an opportunity to examine Australian governments’ collective response to the problem of homelessness—to understand what is and is not working and to hear about best-practice policies and programs both in Australia and overseas. In its interim report, presented in October 2020, the Committee considered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on homelessness. In this final report, the Committee makes 35 recommendations which, taken together, propose a renewed approach to preventing and addressing homelessness in Australia. The Committee’s report concludes with a significant and overarching recommendation for the establishment of a ten-year national strategy on homelessness. While state and territory governments are primarily responsible for housing and homelessness, a clear and consistent message in evidence given to the Committee was that there is a need for a national approach. The Committee considers that a national strategy would lead to more cohesive policies, better coordination and more accountability, particularly in relation to the use of Australian Government funding. A national strategy