In 2024–25, specialist homelessness services identified a need for long-term housing for 113,368 of the people they supported, and provided it to 4,407. For 72.2% of them the need was neither provided nor referred on. The same services recorded 128,915 requests for help that they could not assist on the day, most often because no accommodation was available. These are records of what services could and could not provide. They count services, not the number of people who need them.
Node reading for Housing Policy (Affordable, Social) (21330): NIL RETURN. This article rests on the source data alone.
What the service records measure
Agencies funded to provide specialist homelessness services report each person they support to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). For each client, workers record the services the person needs and whether each was provided, referred elsewhere, or neither. Agencies also record requests they could not take on, for people who did not become clients at that time. The first record describes the services clients received; the second describes requests that did not lead to support. Neither is a count of the people who need help and do not seek it.
What clients needed and what was provided
General assistance and help to sustain housing were provided to most who needed them: general assistance and support to 99.4%, and help to sustain an existing tenancy or mortgage to 83.9%. Short-term or emergency accommodation was provided to 59.2% of those who needed it. Housing that lasts was the least often provided or referred: medium-term or transitional housing was neither provided nor referred for 60.4% of clients who needed it, and long-term housing for 72.2%, the highest share of any service type.
Across all forms of accommodation, 33.2% of clients with an identified need received neither accommodation nor a referral for it. The Productivity Commission reports the same figure as its indicator of unmet demand, 33.2% in 2024–25 against 32.8% the year before, and describes it as a proxy: it covers only people who became clients and had a need identified, not everyone who needs services.
Clients whose identified need was neither provided nor referred, by service, 2024–25
Per cent of clients with the need identified. Source: AIHW, Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024–25, table CLIENTS.24.
| Service | Clients with the need | Provided | Referred only | Neither |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General assistance and support | 276,812 | 99.4% | 0.5% | 0.1% |
| Help to sustain housing (tenancy or mortgage) | 85,725 | 83.9% | 3.5% | 12.6% |
| Short-term or emergency accommodation | 116,178 | 59.2% | 9.6% | 31.2% |
| Mental health (all services) | 24,342 | 48.1% | 21.1% | 30.8% |
| Drug and alcohol counselling | 7,993 | 45.7% | 21.3% | 33.0% |
| Disability services | 4,022 | 42.9% | 20.6% | 36.4% |
| Medium-term or transitional housing | 86,769 | 22.4% | 17.2% | 60.4% |
| Long-term housing | 113,368 | 3.9% | 23.9% | 72.2% |
Clients of specialist homelessness services, 2024–25. A client can have more than one need. Source: AIHW, Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024–25, table CLIENTS.24.
Requests services could not assist
An unassisted request is a request for help that an agency could not meet on the day it was made. In 2024–25 agencies recorded 128,915, an average of 353.2 a day. Requests are not people: the AIHW estimates that a person with an unassisted request approached an agency 1.6 times on average, and that 47.7% of those people received services at some point during the year. It notes that both estimates are likely to be understated.
The recorded number has risen from 86,103 in 2017–18, the first year in the AIHW’s historical table, though not steadily: it reached 114,026 in 2020–21, fell to 105,085 the following year, and rose by 17% in 2024–25 alone. The AIHW advises caution in reading that change: several states have moved to central intake systems, which often require workers to provide some assistance to everyone who presents, so a request that would once have been recorded as unassisted may now be recorded as assisted. The same caution applies to comparisons between states, and none is made here.
Unassisted requests for specialist homelessness services, 2017–18 to 2024–25
Thousands of requests; each point is a financial year, labelled by the year in which it begins. The AIHW advises caution in comparing unassisted requests over time and between states. Source: AIHW, Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024–25, historical table HIST.UNASSISTED.
Why requests went unassisted
Agencies record the reasons a request could not be assisted, and more than one can be recorded for a single request. The most common is that the agency had no accommodation available: 127.4 requests a day, 40.9% of requests where the type of service was recorded. Requests that included short-term or emergency accommodation made up 60.4% of those requests. Other reasons include the person not meeting eligibility criteria, the agency lacking staff, or the agency serving a different area or group.
Unassisted requests by reason, daily average, 2024–25
Average number of requests a day for which each reason was recorded; a request can carry more than one reason. Source: AIHW, Specialist homelessness services annual report 2024–25, table UNASSISTED.6.
In 2024–25, 65% of unassisted requests were made by females, including girls. By household, 64.7% came from people presenting alone and 30% from sole parents with children.
What service data do not show
Service records measure what services did. They depend on how many agencies there are, what they are funded to provide and how each state organises intake, and they change when any of those change. They do not count people who need help but do not approach a service, or people whose need is not recorded. A rise in unassisted requests can reflect more demand, fewer places, a change in recording practice, or all three.
What the records do show is the pattern of provision: general assistance and tenancy support are usually provided, and long-term housing is the need these services least often provide directly. It is mostly supplied outside them, through social and private rental housing, and for 72.2% of clients who needed it, it was neither provided nor referred. How many people are counted as homeless, and how those counts are built, is set out in What the Homelessness Counts Show.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
