Behind every number is a person: Why homelessness action matters now

As we mark Homelessness Week from Monday 3 August to Sunday 9 August, with this year’s theme of Homelessness Action Now, I find myself reflecting on the people and families we work alongside every day who are navigating the uncertainty of not having a safe place to call home.

Through our services across Australia, we see the strength, determination and hope of people facing incredibly difficult circumstances. We also see the difference that a safe home and the right support can make.

A home is more than a roof over someone’s head. It provides stability, safety and the foundation people need to pursue their goals, support their families and move forward with confidence. A home is essential for people to thrive, and that should always be the ambition at the heart of our service.

But for too many people across Australia, that foundation is becoming harder to find.

This year’s Census on Tuesday 11 August will help us understand the scale of homelessness in Australia and ensure the experiences of people without a safe and secure home are included.

The Census is one of the best tools we have to understand homelessness. But it only works if everyone is counted.

Behind every number is a person, a family and a story.

Seeing the reality behind the numbers

Homelessness is not always what people expect. It includes people sleeping rough, but also people staying temporarily with friends or family, living in overcrowded housing or moving between unstable places because there is nowhere safe and affordable to call home.

The 2021 Census recorded 122,494 people experiencing homelessness across Australia. We know this figure is likely to be higher today as more people face rising housing costs, rental stress and a shortage of homes that are truly affordable.

It’s well known that young people are being deeply affected by this housing crisis.

Mission Australia’s recently released An Unequal Foundation report, based on findings from our 2025 Youth Survey of more than 17,000 young people aged 14 to 19, shows the significant impact homelessness and housing instability can have at a critical time in young lives.

The report found that 3.6 per cent of young people surveyed had experienced homelessness in the past year, while a further 4.4 per cent said they or their family had struggled to find or keep housing.

Behind these numbers are young people whose lives have been disrupted by family breakdown, unsafe home environments, family and domestic violence, or the challenge of finding an affordable place to live.

When housing becomes uncertain, it rarely affects just one part of a young person’s life. Mental health can suffer, education or work can become harder to sustain, and confidence about the future can begin to erode.

No young person should have to carry these challenges at such an important stage of their life – and certainly not alone.

A safe home changes what is possible

What we know from our frontline teams is that providing support early can make a life-changing difference.

Homelessness is preventable. When people receive the right support at the right time, we can help them stay safely housed and avoid reaching crisis point.

Through Mission Australia’s tenancy support services, 98 per cent of people supported were able to remain in their homes or avoid homelessness. This shows what is possible when people receive help before they lose their home.

We see this same impact through models that combine housing with support.

Mission Australia’s Townsville Youth Foyer provides young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness with a safe home alongside education, employment and life-skills support. Since opening in 2024, it has supported 64 young people aged 16 to 25, with 95 per cent of those who have moved on reporting they have a secure home base.

These results show what is possible when young people have stability, support and belief in their future.

Housing and support must work together

We know what works, but we need to do more of it.

Too often, support comes only after someone has reached crisis point. We need to prevent homelessness before it starts.

That’s why Mission Australia has been calling for a $500 million Homelessness Prevention Transformation Fund to expand early intervention services and help more people remain safely housed and to drive down the damaging and often avoidable crisis response point.

Prevention means making sure people can access a safe, secure and affordable home, along with the support they need to remain living there.

But we can’t prevent or end homelessness without more homes.

Through our Strategy 2030, Mission Australia is committed to delivering 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2030. This is an ambitious goal, reflecting our belief that everyone should have the security and stability of a place to call home.

We’re also calling for social and affordable housing to make up at least six per cent of all homes over the medium term, and at least 10 per cent over the longer term, alongside more youth-specific housing options such as Youth Foyers.

Turning understanding into action

We know what drives homelessness: Australia’s shortage of social and affordable homes, rising housing costs, financial pressure, family and domestic violence, and other challenges that can leave people without a safe place to call home.

Homelessness is not inevitable. It’s solvable, and this should be our national expectation and a first order priority of our governments.

With courage, compassion, commitment and collective action, we can prevent homelessness and help more people access the stability and security of a home.

But we know we can’t do this alone.

This Homelessness Week, I invite you to take homelessness action now. You can join campaigns that we support like Everybody’s Home, Queensland’s town of nowhere, Home Time youth homelessness campaign, and back the call for more Youth Foyers, take part in and fundraise for Mission Australia’s homelessness services through Sleep In Your Car, or you might partner with us or donate to help people facing tough times today.

Every action, whether large or small, contributes to creating a future where everyone has a safe place to call home.

Together, we can build hope and possibility for all.