Homelessness in Australia - official ABS estimates

Image source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has for the first time released official estimates of the prevalence of homelessness in Australia. The estimates, which are based on the ABS’s new definition of homelessness and methodology for estimating homelessness using census data, are provided for homelessness at the time of the 2001 and 2006 censuses. Estimates from the 2011 census are to be published on 12 November 2012.

 

The ABS found that, as at the 2006 census, 89 728 Australians were homeless. This represents 0.5 per cent of the Australian population at that time and a rate of 45 homeless people for every 10 000 persons. At the 2001 census, the ABS estimates that 95 314 people were homeless. As such, according to the ABS, between 2001 and 2006 there was a 6 per cent decrease in the number of homeless Australians, and the rate of homelessness fell from 51 homeless people per 10 000 to 45. The main factor contributing to this decline was a fall in the boarding house population.

 

The ABS’s estimates differ substantially from what were previously assumed to be the most accurate and reliable data on homelessness in Australia—those estimates produced by Chamberlain and McKenzie, and published in Counting the Homeless reports. According to Counting the Homeless data, in 2001 there were 99 000 homeless people whilst in 2006 there were 104 676 homeless. Hence, not only are the ABS homelessness estimates lower than those furnished by the Counting the Homeless figures, but they also contradict the finding that there was an increase in homelessness between 2001 and 2006 of 4.8 per cent. So, the question is, what are the changes that led to this result?

National Homeless Persons' Week

Image Source: Homelessness Australia

This week is National Homeless Persons’ Week. The theme title this year, MY Address: diversity in homelessness, seeks to draw attention to the many different people who are homeless for many different reasons.

A previous FlagPost briefly considered the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) current review of the way in which homeless people are counted in Australia. This review proposed a number of changes to the Counting the Homeless methodology with a view to improving estimates of the number of homeless Australians.

Re-counting the homeless





Image source: SA Government



Counting the Homeless reports provide the most comprehensive picture of homelessness in Australia today. However, recently the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released a discussion paper that calls into question the methodology underpinning Counting the Homeless figures. In the paper, the ABS proposes a new methodology for estimating the number of homeless Australians which, if it were implemented, would result in a statistically significant reduction in the estimate of homeless Australians.