Demand exceeds available places for Australia’s homeless

Although around 14,000 people with immediate housing needs were able to be accommodated through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) on an average day in 2006-07, more than 350, over half of them under the age of 20, were turned away, according to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

“While homeless shelters help large numbers of people who need a place to stay each day, not everyone who needs a place is able to get one’, said Felicity Murdoch of the Institute’s Homelessness and Housing Analysis Unit.

“To give some perspective, the 368 people who couldn’t be accommodated represent 3% of the total expressed demand for SAAP accommodation on an average day”, she said.

“But there is also the reality that on any given day only 43% of all new requests for accommodation were successful.”

The report, Demand for SAAP accommodation by homeless people 2006-07: summary, shows that some groups have more difficulty in getting a place to stay than others.

Family groups, for example, were more likely to be turned away than single people.

The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program is a major part of the Australian Government’s overall response to homelessness, and represents a broader social safety net designed to help people in crisis.

Every year, in addition to gathering data on other aspects of its operations, the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program conducts surveys of people turned away from SAAP funded accommodation.

These survey results are analysed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which is the lead agency in producing SAAP statistical reports.