New findings from the UNSW Australian Homelessness Monitor 2026, drawn from a national survey of Specialist Homelessness Service (SHS) providers and qualitative interviews with key homelessness sector stakeholders show that Australia’s homelessness support systems are currently under severe strain. This is impacting their ability to adequately support the growing number of people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
The strains on the system result from intersecting pressures due to growing demand for homelessness services and the constrained capacity of service systems to respond.
Whilst public expenditure on homelessness responses has risen substantially over the past decade, funding directed to service delivery has failed to match the scale of expanding demand for assistance.
Ongoing shortfalls in affordable rental housing across the country are both a cause of increased demand for homelessness services and a key factor containing the capacity of services to respond. This is because the declining availability of tenancies within the means of low-income Australians prevents services from transitioning clients into long-term housing, thus producing backlogs and bottlenecks throughout the service system.
Consequences include services forced to turn away people in need; deterioration in client wellbeing due to delays in accessing support and/or prolonged system engagement; services having to prioritise crisis responses over homelessness prevention; and rising workforce stress due to staff burnout, trauma and turnover.