Demand for accommodation by homeless exceeds supply

While homeless shelters help large numbers of people who need a place to stay each day, not everyone who needs a place to stay is able to get one, according to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP), on an average day in 2005–06, had to turn away about 356 people who were seeking immediate accommodation, around a third of them children. In the majority of cases, this was because of a lack of availability.

Over 12,000 people on an average day, were able to get accommodation through SAAP or were still using the accommodation.
The 356 people who were unable to be accommodated represent 3% of the demand for SAAP accommodation on an average day.

The report, Demand for SAAP accommodation by homeless people 2005–06: summary, shows that some groups have more difficulty in getting a place to stay than others, such as family groups.

There are several possible reasons for this, among them the fact that, once accommodated, families tend to stay longer than individuals, meaning that much of the available accommodation for families is taken up each day.