Increase in number of homeless Australians receiving help

A new report says there has been a significant increase in the number of people receiving help from the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP), a federal and state government initiative aimed at providing services and housing to Australians who are homeless.

During the year 2006-07, it is estimated that about 187,900 people who were homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, received some form of assistance from SAAP.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) the increase does not necessarily reflect an increase in the number of homeless people, but does reflect the inclusion of new agencies in the program and better reporting practices.

The annual, national report, 'Homeless people in SAAP', shows that the majority of clients supported by SAAP were female.

The Institute's Felicity Murdoch says young females, in particular, were likely to become a SAAP client as well as accompanying children 4 years and under - there were more than 69,000 children using SAAP services in 2006-07 - up from 54,700 in 2005-06.

Ms Murdoch says most clients were born in Australia and did not identify as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, but Indigenous clients were significantly over-represented, accounting for 2% of the general population, but 18% of SAAP clients.

The rate of use was particularly high for accompanying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children compared with all children and in most cases agencies were able to directly meet the expressed needs of clients and their accompanying children.

The services that were provided most often were basic support such as meals and shower facilities and the services that were required but least likely to be provided were specialist services, such as specialist counselling services and health or medical services.

The majority of support periods did not include accommodation.

The report says before the end of their support period most clients had a case management plan in place and, in 93% of cases, all or most of the client's goals were achieved.

The report found that in general the circumstances of clients improved, particularly for those supported for longer periods and those requesting specific support, such as assistance with housing, employment and income.

SAAP is the Government's major response to homelessness and each annual report is accompanied by individual state and territory reports, which cover client outcomes for income, employment, education, and other measures.