In late 2021, The Salvation Army did a nationwide Social Justice Stocktake to get to the heart of what people were seeing in their local communities. From there, they built a map of social justice priorities across Australia.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an important agreement by countries who have promised to protect children’s rights. The Convention explains who children are, all their rights, and the responsibilities of governments. All the rights are connected, they are all equally important and they cannot be taken away from children.
Children’s Emotional Development Is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains is an article written by National Scientific Council on the developing child.
A growing body of scientific evidence tells us that emotional development begins early in life, that it is a critical aspect of the development of overall brain architecture, and that it has enormous consequences over the course of a lifetime. These findings have far-reaching implications for policymakers and parents, and, therefore, demand our attention.
Commissioned by Berry Street, this report from Social Ventures Australia presents the economic case for targeted early interventions to prevent children entering out-of-home care in Victoria. A cost-benefit analysis of five evidence-based programs shows that $150 million of investment in these programs per year over ten years would deliver cumulative net savings of $1.6 billion.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have brought the new Mental Health Services in Australia 2019 report. Mental health services in Australia describes the activity and characteristics of Australia’s health care and social care services accessed by people with a mental illness.
Published by Mission Australia, this paper identifies domestic and family violence as a key driver of homelessness in Australia, particularly for women and children. The paper discusses the importance of domestic and family violence prevention in order to prevent homelessness, requiring a cultural and systemic shift in individual and community attitudes regarding gender and violence.
Short-term or emergency accommodation is a service provided for the homeless, and those at risk of homelessness. This report explores the circumstances, experiences and housing outcomes of clients in short-term or emergency accommodation who sought assistance from specialist homelessness services between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2015.
Based on service use patterns across a 4-year period, this comprehensive analysis highlights the diversity and the complexities of the short-term or emergency accommodation population.
This article focuses on the remarkable story of a deeply disorganized child, Rachel, and her experience in foster care with Janet and Paul Mann, founders of the Children’s Ark.
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)
This research examined the impact of housing and other support services on safety and wellbeing for families experiencing domestic and family violence. It reviewed the legislative framework, strategies, governance arrangements and major initiatives in each state and territory, together with interviews with key stakeholders and users to better understand integration of support services.
Couch surfers are among the most hidden groups of people experiencing homelessness. This report explores the circumstances, experiences and housing outcomes of couch surfers who sought assistance from specialist homelessness services between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2015. Based on service use patterns across a 4–year period, this comprehensive analysis highlights the diversity and the complexities of the couch surfer population.
6 DECEMBER 2018 APPS Policy Forum
Evidence has shown for a long time that the best way out of poverty is to increase incomes and access to resources. So why hasn’t policy responded? Gill Main writes about a ground-breaking study from the UK that aims to help policymakers hear the real story.
A new research report from AHURI points to a shortfall of 727,300 social housing properties across Australia by 2038, including 166,000 new properties across Victoria.
National Shelter, Community Sector Banking, Brotherhood St Laurence and SGS have released the Rental Affordability Index (RAI) on a biannual basis since 2015. A price index for rental housing markets, the RAI is an easy to understand indicator of rental affordability relative to household incomes. It is applied to geographic areas across Australia.
'Every Suburb, Every Town' -- a significant report into poverty by VCOSS . They commissioned NATSEM to crunch the local numbers on poverty both by suburb and demographic (gender, age, housing status, employment, disability, Aboriginal and family status), using census and SIH data.
The specialist homelessness services 2017-18 web report is the seventh annual report from the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC).
The following article appeared in the August 2018 edition of CHP Parity: Issues of Substance: Substance Dependency and Homelessness. It was written by Nigel Pernu, a member of CHP’s Peer Education and Support Team.
An AIHW report
Rough sleepers are the most visible population experiencing homelessness. This report explores the circumstances, experiences and housing outcomes of rough sleepers who sought assistance from specialist homelessness services between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2015.
Based on service use patterns across a 4-year period, this comprehensive analysis highlights the diversity and the complexities of the rough sleeper population.
A new AHURI report examines the challenges and opportunities for low-income renters as they attempt to navigate a changing private rental sector (PRS)
Excert from CHIA - March ebulletin
The Grattan Institute’s recently released research, Housing Affordability – re-imagining the Australian Dream, is the next in a series of compelling reports urging Commonwealth and State Governments to move past their policy malaise and take decisive action to improve housing affordability and guide the development of our cities.
New data from the AIHW shows that last financial year, 10,985 primary and secondary school students sought help from homelessness services (accompanied and unaccompanied); an 11% increase on the previous year.
The Couch Surfing Limbo report looks into the experiences of young people who are couch surfing, and the experiences of couch providers, identifying legal, policy and service gaps, and ways forward. It highlights several challenges and makes several recommendations.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
Individual state and territory level infographics summarise information on specialist homelessness services delivered in 2016–17.
Brain-to-Brain, Body-to-Body: A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Perspective on the Treatment of Children and Adolescents
Australian Institute of Family Studies, Child Family Community Australia have conducted a study into Childen who Bully at school.
The American Psychological Society has written a paper about the development of a new diagnosis for childhood trauma
A report by Hanover.
This exploratory study is the first time that the point of view of primary schools and their day-to-day experiences of dealing with student homelessness have been investigated. The findings make an important contribution to the broader evidence base on the detrimental impact of homelessness on children’s education.
The Victorian Government, through the Department of Education and Training, has worked with the Victorian Koorie community to develop Marrung.
Over the past three years, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has explored the extent to which children and young people have been exposed to child sexual abuse, and considered some of the reasons why institutions have failed to actively prevent child sexual abuse and appropriately respond when children and young people have been harmed.
According to the 2011 Census, some 44,000 children and young people in Australia are homeless. The reality is worse; many others are ‘hidden homeless’ who are not counted in the official statistics.
Australian governments have looked to AHURI to investigate what would support an affordable housing industry to:
Full Report of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, handed down 30th April 2016.
A shared national framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia. Developed by Our Watch, VicHealth and ANROWS - on Tuesday 10th November.
The Department for Child Protection and Family Support (the Department) is committed to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children, families and communities that come into contact with the child protection system. The Aboriginal Service and Practice Framework 2016-2018 (the Framework) has been designed to support and sustain this commitment.
What are the stated objectives of the NAHA and the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH)?
As part of its Terms of Reference the Royal Commission is required to inquire into what institutions and governments should do to better protect children against child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts in the future. A key aspect of this task has been to examine what makes institutions ‘child safe.’
Housing assistance in Australia 2017 provides up-to-date information relating to government funded provision of social housing, rent assistance, purchase assistance and support services to help households maintain their tenancies.
There is much research to suggest a considerable overlap between people experiencing precarious housing, and drug and alcohol misuse. Linking client data from specialist homelessness services and alcohol and other drug treatment services, this report provides a picture of the intersection of these two issues on a national scale.
Increasing supply of affordable housing critical to enabling competition and consumer choice in housing assistance
AHURI's latest research and policy bulletin, 'The economic benefits of providing public housing and support to formerly homeless people', explores the benefits of providing social housing and support
The AHURI report, ‘Effectiveness of the homelessness services system’ written for the Housing Ministers meeting in November has been released
Australian Housing Urban Reasearch Institute (AHURI) research informs Treasurers’ affordable housing plan
In recent news, Treasurer Scott Morrison has visited London to confer with British officials on the UK experience implementing a bond aggregator model to fund affordable housing.
New AHURI research explores the benefits of long term leases for not-for-profit housing providers
Exert from Council to homeless Persons newsletter - 23 Feb 2017
The first national survey of tenants has revealed renters in Australia have little security, are living in poor quality homes, experience discrimination based on their income, age, parental status and are fearful of reprisal if they request repairs and maintenance.
This report investigates how services supporting those experiencing homelessness are funded, and how different forms and levels of funding, together with diverse funding sources, impact on the delivery of homelessness assistance.
