A quantitative analysis of Specialist Homelessness Services Collection Data in Australia from 2011/12 to 2023/24 regarding Client demographic information, and service delivery trends and housing outcomes.
More than 48,000 Queenslanders were assisted by a Specialist Homelessness Service in Queensland in 2023/24. Statistical and anecdotal evidence point to increasing demand on SHS across Queensland. This research will do a quantitative analysis of data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) Data cubes to explore critical trends in client demographics, service delivery and housing outcomes for clients of Specialist Homelessness Services in Australia from 2012 to 2024. Specifically the research will explore and undertake of the following:
- The housing and homelessness situations of clients on first presentation to a SHS and on their last reporting to a SHS from 2012 to 2024
- The proportion of new versus returning clients to SHS
- The main reason, and other reasons, people present to SHS over the twelve-year period
- The services and supports provided by SHS during this ten year period (ie. Temporary accommodation, financial assistance, case management, housing etc)
- The reasons support ended (to SHS clients) over the twelve-year period
- The major demographic shifts/ changes that have occurred in the people SHS are working with across Qld ( Age, presenting unit as individual or family, Gender, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, Domestic and Family Violence, people presenting with mental health concerns, people with a disability, children on child protection orders, ex-prisoners)
- Regional shifts in demand for homelessness services based on LGA