November 1st, 2026Housing and homelessness spot fires merge into a raging front

More than six in ten homelessness providers say they are forced to turn away people they would once have helped, according to new data going to Treasurer Jim Chalmers that warns spot fires in the housing and homelessness systems have merged into a raging fire front.

Homelessness Australia prepared the briefing to inform the Treasury’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO). It draws on fresh data from the UNSW City Futures Research Centre’s Australian Homelessness Monitor 2026 and AIHW figures showing long-term housing was provided to just 3.9 per cent of clients who needed it.

The UNSW survey of providers found 86 per cent say finding long-term housing for clients is harder than it was two years ago, with 70 per cent saying it is “much harder”. Fewer than one per cent say it has become easier.

One peak body representative told the researchers staff have “nothing to offer” beyond tents and advice on where to camp safely, and that women leaving family violence are being asked, “Do you have a lock on your car?”

Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said a complete overhaul was needed.

“There are now so many points of vulnerability in our housing and homelessness system that the cracks are starting to join. Small patch ups just won’t do the job.

“MYEFO is an excellent opportunity to begin a robust response and pull the fraying threads of our housing and homelessness system back together. We can’t afford further delay, putting more people on the street and pushing more workers out of the response.”

The briefing notes that services that cannot move clients on cannot take new ones in. Ninety-one per cent of providers say demand has risen over the past two years, against 0.4 per cent who say it has fallen. Sixty-three per cent say they are turning away people they would once have helped, with some turning away at least as many people as get through the door.

And eight in ten (82 per cent) say temporary and emergency accommodation is harder to find, while more than nine in ten (92 per cent) of providers attribute the rise in demand to worsening rental affordability.

Report author and Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy Andrew Clarke said the figures were the worst he had seen.

“The system is under extreme pressure. We have 58 per cent of providers telling us their service now focuses disproportionately on crisis response over preventing people from losing their homes. And when it comes to the morale of staff at the pointy end of the crisis, 69 per cent identify staff burnout and turnover as the most common effect of the demand spike. Homelessness support services are swimming upstream against an ever faster current.”

Homelessness Australia is calling on the federal government to:

build 34,000 social homes a year, lifting social housing to 6 per cent of all Australian housing stock by 2040

lift income support payments to at least $600 a week scale federal investment in homelessness support funding to meet demand

fund 20,000 Housing First and supportive housing places for people with serious and persistent mental ill health and other complex needs

invest in a Homelessness Prevention Transformation Fund, including tenancy sustainment programs, and extend and expand the Reconnect Program for children and young people

reinvest in crisis and transitional housing as part of the social housing growth program