Housing Affordability and Homelessness

This report is about homelessness, considered in the context of our wider housing, service, and social system. Homelessness is an urgent and growing problem. Currently, homelessness as an end point gets significant attention from governments and the specialist services working in the sector. To properly address homelessness, however, problems throughout our communities that push people into housing insecurity need to be identified and addressed. Non‐profits, government, businesses, and residents of Australia all have influence over the housing system that affects the accessibility, affordability, safety, and appropriateness of housing. Therefore, we all have a role to play to address homelessness. This report assembles the evidence, from official statistics, academic research, and other publicly available information about the lived experience of homelessness and housing affordability in Australia. It aims to build on previous work by bringing together the evidence, amplifying the insights into housing affordability and homelessness challenges in Australia and the range of possibilities available to us to reduce homelessness. The vignettes throughout this report are hypothetical, unless otherwise cited. This report is one part of the Centre for Social Impact’s response to homelessness, via its Amplify Social Impact project. It is meant to establish a foundation for broader engagement with stakeholders so that we can all contribute to the reduction of homelessness.