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Who can become homeless?

Homelessness can affect all members of the Tasmanian community including the young or old, families or single people, Aboriginal people or people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, resulting in great social and economic costs to the individual, and the community as a whole.


The effects of homelessness

Homelessness creates instability, leaves people vulnerable to chronic unemployment and ill health, and with limited or no ability to participate in the social and economic life of their community. Homelessness means that members of our community are living without their most fundamental human rights.


What is the size of Tasmania’s homeless population?

At the time of the 2001 census, it was estimated that 2,415 people were homeless in Tasmania. This figure is up by 400 from the 1996 census. Another way to measure homelessness is expressed as a rate per 10,000 of the population. In 2001 the rate for Tasmania was 52 per 10,000, in 1996 it was 43 per 10,000. (See endnote 1).

Of the 2,415 people homeless in Tasmania on census night in 2001, only 314 people (13%) were staying in services funded through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP). SAAP is jointly funded by Commonwealth and State Governments to provide funds for crisis services to homeless people around the country. A further 11% were in boarding houses, 66% staying with friends/relatives and 10% in impoverished dwellings. It is estimated that up to 1,200 requests for SAAP services in Tasmania could not be met during 2002-2003. (See endnote2).


Who is Homeless in Tasmania?

• Male (43.2%)
  
• Female (56.8%)
  
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (8.8%)
  

Overall, Indigenous clients were over-represented as SAAP clients relative to their population size: approximately 3.2 % of Tasmanians were estimated to be Indigenous Australians in 2002 - 2003, compared with 8.8% of SAAP clients in 2002-2003.


Most common reasons for homelessness

• Eviction/previous accommodation ended (14.5%)
  
• Usual accommodation unavailable (14%)
  
• Domestic and family violence (13.5%)
  
• Relationship/family breakdown (10%)
  
• Financial difficulty (10%)

The most common reasons for each client group becoming homeless are:

• Male alone, aged under 25		Usual accommodation unavailable (20.9%) Eviction/accommodation ended (19%)
• Male alone, aged 25 or over		Financial difficulty (14.3 %) Eviction/accommodation ended (13.4%)
• Female alone, aged under 25		Relationship/relationship breakdown (18.6%) Usual accommodation unavailable (15.5%)
• Female alone, aged 25 or over		Domestic violence (26%) Sexual abuse (16.9%)
• Couple with no children		Eviction/accommodation ended (22.6%) Financial difficulty (22.4%)
• Couple with children		Usual accommodation unavailable (19.8%) Eviction/accommodation ended (18.7%)
• Male with children		Eviction/accommodation ended (22.8%) Usual accommodation unavailable (18.3%)
• Female with children		Domestic and Family Violence (37.8%) Eviction/accommodation ended (11.4%)

What can be done to address homelessness?

Addressing and preventing homelessness requires improvement in a range of social policy areas such as housing, income, employment, heath, social security and a prevention of violence and discrimination. Lasting solutions in all these policy areas are needed to prevent, reduce and alleviate homelessness in Tasmania.

The work of Shelter Tasmania is to promote the importance of affordable housing for all in our community. Also to provide a structure that enables the vision and objectives of the organisation to reflect the needs of homeless people and people who live in poverty and low incomes.

Endnotes

(1.) This information, including the definition of homelessness was extracted from Chamberlain C & Mackenzie, D (2003) Counting the Homeless 2001. Canberra, The Australian Bureau of Statistics, cat. no. 2050.0. See www.abs.gov.au
2.) See SAAP National Data Collection Annual Report 2002-3 (Tasmanian Supplementary Tables) see www.ahihw.gov.au