Abstract:

This report examines three features of the policy environment in Australia that have led to an interest in the cost of homelessness met by service system budgetary expenditures and the broad cost of homelessness to society through lost productivity and reduced social cohesion. First, homelessness has become an entrenched feature of Australian society. Second, there is increased awareness of the way in which the needs of homeless people place additional demands not only on homeless persons services but also on other human service systems. Third, there is the continuing broad consensus that the growth in homelessness in Australian society is a bad thing. The Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness (2001) has recently summed up this consensus with its statement: ‘It is not acceptable for people in Australia to be homeless’.