How effective are homelessness services?

Homelessness services can be effective with helping clients to transition into stable housing. Housing and homelessness services work with at-risk individuals and groups to obtain and sustain housing. Ideally, they should be delivered:

using the Housing First model (which prioritises giving immediate housing to homeless individuals without any preconditions)¹
by addressing the individuals needs using person-centred and trauma informed approaches
using holistic and integrated support to connect clients with relevant services identified as significant for them.

While these programs and services can be effective, there are plenty of challenges that need to be addressed, systemically, to reduce the impact of homelessness on individuals and the community.

Background and context of homelessness services

Homelessness services work with people who are close to or already experiencing homelessness. Clients may be supported in numerous ways to improve their long-term housing outcomes. According to the Queensland Government, Department of Housing and Public Works:

“The social housing system is designed to ensure people in need receive appropriate, affordable and safe housing, and are supported by pathways that build and sustain independence.” ²

Housing and homelessness service providers must provide case management to respond to each individual client’s expressed needs. They can do this through entry screening, assessment, planning, delivering direct service, co-ordination of services and referrals, monitoring and reviewing the client’s success, exiting the client from the service and evaluating their progress.³

The types of support that housing and homelessness services can provide for clients include:

Outreach support

Where service providers connect with clients in the community and public spaces to provide engagement, assessment, intake and referrals, and assistance.

Centre based support

Which is provided face-to-face in a centre and open during hours that are suitable for the client to drop in and receive support where needed.

Temporary supported accommodation

Temporary supported accommodation, like our Immediate Housing Response program, provides support to clients in immediate crisis by providing them with temporary accommodation (like motel accommodation) and a plan to transition them into transitional or independent housing/ accommodation as soon as possible.

Immediate supported accommodation

This is a shorter-term, temporary housing solution for people experiencing homelessness or at high risk of experiencing homelessness. A homelessness provider will assist the client with finding long-term housing.

Transitional supported accommodation

This is also designed to be another short-term housing solution (one to two years) that combines professional support services to help clients stabilise their lives before moving into long-term housing. This type of housing typically lasts 12-18 months.

The purpose of homelessness services

The overall purpose of homelessness services is to support people to achieve stable, long-term housing outcomes. They can do this through prevention and response measures, providing temporary or stable accommodation to support people while they get back on their feet, and offering comprehensive support through linkage to other programs and services. Services can also support clients by helping to promote their independence, assisting with accessing housing, and advocating for change.

While the goal is to support clients with achieving long-term and stable housing outcomes, some services (like Anglicare Southern Queensland) provide additional support to help clients achieve other goals. It’s important that homelessness services help their clients to work towards living fulfilling lives. At Anglicare, we take a holistic approach to supporting our client’s wellbeing, as we believe that this can influence their long-term housing outcomes and long-term wellbeing.

Other areas of support

Health and wellbeing

Many people who experience homelessness have co-existing physical or mental health challenges. As such, they may want to seek support and assistance to manage these challenges while also receiving housing support. Some services, like Anglicare, can help refer them to other medical services (i.e., GP’s, mental health and counselling services, alcohol and other drug programs) to take control of their health and wellbeing.

Employment, training and education

Having financial stability is a goal that many clients associate with sustaining long-term housing outcomes. As such, housing and homelessness services can help connect them with access to work, traineeships or study opportunities. At Anglicare, we can directly support clients in building their resumes, job applications or referring them to employment, training or educational programs.

Legal and advocacy

Many homelessness services can provide direct advocacy for their clients. Alternatively, they can refer them to external advocacy services. If clients need legal support, they can be referred to agencies who can support them with understanding their rights and assisting them through tenancy or eviction issues, fines, debts or other legal matters. They can also represent them or advocate on their behalf with community legal programs.

How homelessness services measure the effectiveness of their programs

Homelessness services can measure the effectiveness of their programs in several ways. However, some programs and services measure their effectiveness differently, and this can be dependent on the type(s) of services they provide.

Here are some of the ways that effectiveness can be measured:

Measuring housing and homelessness

The number or percentage of clients who move into stable housing following their participation in housing or homelessness services
Retention comparison: the number of clients who remained housed at various time intervals or the number of clients who return to homelessness at various time intervals
The length of time it takes for clients to transition from entering their program to independent housing
The number or percentage of a population experiencing homelessness at any given point in time
The number of goals that were set by the client and were achieved.

Client experience and satisfaction

This may be determined qualitatively through client satisfaction surveys or interviews. Feedback can be helpful for services in understanding their strengths and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Determining wrap around support success

For homelessness services who provide wrap around supports to clients, in addition to housing outcomes, they may also look at:

Employment rates: to determine the number or percentage of clients who gain employment or remained employed following their exit from their program
Training or education rates: to determine the rates of clients who have completed or are still pursuing training or education
Client income: to determine if clients experienced income stability or increases following program completion
Client wellbeing: to determine the number or percentage of clients who remain connected to their primary care, mental health care or other health care providers
Connection to family, social networks and community: to determine the percentage of clients who are working towards or remain connected with their family, social networks and community.

Services may also measure their effectiveness by utilising one or several metrics.

Evidence of effectiveness

Evidence into the research around providers who use the Housing First model has demonstrated that this model is the most effective in stabilising housing outcomes for people who have experienced homelessness. According to the research, the rate at which clients retain housing, after being supported by programs that follow this model, is between 66 to 90 per cent.⁴

Strategies that improve transitions

Some of the strategies that are most effective in helping homelessness services to support clients transition into longer term housing are listed below. This includes providing them with immediate temporary housing and case management and individualised support to help them with setting and working towards their goals. Support plans should be individualised and co-designed with clients and should include regular check-up and advocacy on behalf of the clients.

Clients should then be supported by homelessness services to improve their life skills and capacity building (which includes budgeting, cleaning, time management and tenancy skills) to equip them for independent living. Other strategies that are important in supporting clients to improve their transition into independent and long-term housing include:

Employment, training and education support
Health and wellbeing support including referral to substance use services (if applicable for the client)
Relationship and community building support
Follow up and post-transition support and check-ins.

Future directions and policy recommendations

In Queensland, housing and homelessness services are stretched. This is due to cost-of-living pressures and lack of affordable social housing constraints. As we explained in an earlier article, What are the biggest challenges facing youth homelessness services, the government needs to support homelessness services by investing in more prevention and early intervention measures.

Government and non-government organisations need to increase accessibility of available and affordable housing to all Queenslanders and reduce accessibility barriers. They should increase the supply of affordable private rental housing. ⁵

Other ways they can help reduce the impact of homelessness is by:

Investing in more screening programs that identify at-risk children and families who are experiencing hardship or vulnerabilities (poverty, domestic and family violence, health and mental health concerns, etc.)
Providing increased assistance to First Nations, culturally diverse, LGBTQIA+ and other diverse groups and individuals who might be at increased risk
Investing more money into homelessness services that provide crisis, transitional and wrap around support to those experiencing or close to experiencing homelessness. Thus, supporting clients to be able to transition to independence by preventing relapse and continuing to maintain sustainable housing outcomes
Improving synergies between organisations and providers involved in the direct care delivery of homeless individuals and families
Improving and increasing rural homelessness support to communities with few services to support homeless individuals, groups and families.

Together, we can all make a positive difference to help reduce the impact of homelessness. This starts with sharing facts and awareness around homelessness to reduce misinformation and misconceptions, volunteering to support community-led homelessness services and using our voices to advocate for positive and fair changes.

To learn more about homelessness or to get involved in our homelessness efforts, please head to our housing and homelessness page.