Concern at the number of homeless people turned away

Mission Australia has expressed its concern at new figures that show close to 60 per cent of people who need help from government-funded specialist homeless agencies are turned away.

The data, released 15 December 2011 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), shows that of people needing new and immediate accommodation in 2010-11, 59 per cent were unable to be placed.

The AIHW’s report also states the group most likely to be turned away were couples with children, followed by individuals with children and couples without children. Over half those turned away were aged under 20 and the majority of all people turned away were female.

Mission Australia’s General Manager, Social Advocacy and Public Affairs, Eleri Morgan-Thomas, said the knowledge that the majority were family groups – who would possibly have ended up sleeping rough, in cars, or in other dangerous situations – fitted with Mission Australia’s experience and was cause for significant alarm.

“These numbers – and the tragic individual stories behind them – are extremely concerning. Any level of homelessness in Australia is unacceptable,” said Ms Morgan-Thomas.

“These latest results match up pretty closely with Mission Australia’s own experiences. Our data suggests that single women with children and families are likely to have the most difficulty in accessing accommodation due to a lack of capacity.

“Anecdotally, many services in outer metro and regional areas are reporting demand that they are unable to meet. What then follows is a ‘drift’ into the inner city which causes both a loss of personal and community networks for the individual and a severe bottleneck in terms of demand for services and access to housing in those areas.

“We also need to recognise that these figures only tell part of the story. For every person fronting a government-funded service there’d be hundreds of others who chose not to – I’m thinking of young people couch-surfing temporarily with friends or extended family. Those people don’t get counted.

“Both federal and state/territory governments have made a significant investment in tackling homelessness over the past few years – measures that are aimed not only at addressing accommodation capacity but also cutting the flow of people into homelessness and trying to get them on their feet more quickly once they’re there.

“But with turn away rates remaining at levels similar to the last two years it’s obvious we haven’t succeeded in ‘turning off the tap’ in terms of people entering into homelessness.

“It’s also further evidence that we’re failing to provide adequate assistance to homeless families, in particular, homeless children. For this most vulnerable client group we need clear national targets for reducing their number, a national framework to address their needs and increased resources.

“What these figures show us is that Australia’s homeless problem won’t be fixed overnight. It’s a reminder that we need to work harder, better and more effectively if we’re going to get on top of the problem,” said Ms Morgan-Thomas.

For more information

Paul Andrews
Mission Australia National Media Manager
02 9219 2080 or 0409 665 495

• Listen to today’s report on homelessness on ABC Radio’s AM
• Read transcript of ABC Radio's report
• Read the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Report - People turned away from government funded specialist homelessness accommodation 2010-11