Homelessness Shelters Forced to Turn People Away and Leave Calls Unanswered

A report from Homelessness Australia and Impact Economics found that homelessness services are under overwhelming pressure.
The report uncovered that frontline services are forced to turn people away and leave phone calls unanswered, and are calling for the government to increase support.
“The housing crisis has just become an absolute housing emergency and homelessness support services are just buckling under pressure,” Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin said.
“The government has the midyear budget coming up in December, this should be a priority.”
She said many people were only a negative shock—losing a job, experiencing family violence or hospital discharge—away from homelessness.
Over time, client numbers have barely increased because services already operate at full capacity. Further, the number of people registered as unassisted has not significantly risen because services under increased pressure are less likely to take the time to record people turned away.
Others cannot contact services because their doors are closed or phones are unmanned remain unregistered.
Therefore, Impact Economics monitored 23 specialist homeless services for two weeks in September to uncover information on the amount of people turned away.
The study found that around one in every five days families seeking emergency shelter did not receive support and unaccompanied minors were turned away one in every nine days. Independents without kids were turned away on one in every two days.
Colvin said deciding who receives shelter each night is distressing for support workers.
“Do you say yes to the mum with two small kids who has no where to go that night, or to another mum who has a car?” she said.
A higher percentage of providers, 89 percent, could not answer phones for some period. On average, services could not answer phones on 43 percent of days, leaving 325 hours of missed phone calls.
However, she also said that frontline services need more funding to support people who cannot wait for long-term solutions.
“Cost-of-living increases always hurt those on lower incomes the most—and these figures highlight the extent of hardship,” Jackson said.
According to Homelessness Australia, significant additional resources are needed to enable services to prevent homelessness where possible and provide the support people need to gain and sustain a home.