Fed: Shelter unavailable for half of homeless people: report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2006
Fed: Shelter unavailable for half of homeless people: report

EDS: embargoed until 0100 (AEDT) December 14, 2006

By Jane Bunce

CANBERRA, Dec 14 AAP - More than half of homeless people looking for temporary housing
each day are turned away, a new report has found.

About 304 people are rejected each day, and families with children are most likely
to be turned away.

But the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report has found the number
only represents two per cent of those requiring accommodation as 95 per cent of homeless
people stay in the same place for longer than one day. The remaining three per cent find
accommodation.

The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) accommodates more than 12,300
people each day - about 7,400 adults or unaccompanied children and 4,900 accompanied children.

On an average day, 193 adults or unaccompanied children and 111 accompanying children
who request immediate accommodation are turned away, equating to 56 per cent of those
making a valid request.

"In order to put those turn-away rates in perspective, it is important to include the
number of people continuing their SAAP accommodation on an average day," Felicity Murdoch
of AIHW Supported Accommodation and Crisis Services Unit said.

"Given the large numbers of people already accommodated in SAAP each day, this means
that only two in 100 people needing immediate accommodations were unable to be accommodated."

Almost 30 per cent of those unable to find accommodation were of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander background, in line with statistics showing Indigenous Australians make
up 16 per cent of SAAP clients.

The report also found families had more difficulty obtaining SAAP accommodation than individuals.

About 57 per cent of those turned away were women, the report found, and 55 per cent
were aged under 20.

Overall, about six in 10 accompanied children whose parents were looking for a place
were turned away.

The report identifies possible reasons. These include it being easier to house a lone
person than a family group, insufficient family accommodation being available and because
families tended to stay longer once they had found a place.

The report also identified a substantial difference between the total estimated number
of homeless people identified by the Census and the number of people housed by SAAP, indicating
many homeless people do not request accommodation.

The "hidden" demand could include people who do not know how to access SAAP agencies,
who may not live near a SAAP agency or who may have given up trying to get help.

AAP jb/imc/cdh

KEYWORD: HOMELESS (EMBARGOED)

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.