Homelessness Australia is not a provider of accommodation. If you are seeking emergency accommodation, click here for more information.

About Homelessness

Do you want to understand more about homelessness, what it means and how to prevent it? We have put together some helpful definitions and models for addressing homelessness below.

There is no one definition of homelessness.

Homelessness Australia uses the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) statistical definition of homelessness.

“When a person does not have suitable accommodation alternatives they are considered homeless if their current living arrangement:

The ABS definition of homelessness is informed by an understanding of homelessness as ‘home’lessness, not ‘roof’lessness. It emphasises the core elements of ‘home’ in Anglo American and European interpretations of the meaning of home as identified in research evidence (Mallett, 2004). These elements may include: a sense of security, stability, privacy, safety, and the ability to control living space. Homelessness is therefore a lack of one or more of the elements that represent ‘home’.

The definition has been constructed from a conceptual framework centred around the following elements:

Some of the other recognised definitions of homelessness are:

Mackenzie and Chamberlain’s cultural definition of homelessness

Mackenzie and Chamberlain’s (1992) definition includes three categories in recognition of the diversity of homelessness:

  1. Primary homelessness is experienced by people without conventional accommodation (e.g. sleeping rough or in improvised dwellings);
  2. Secondary homelessness is experienced by people who frequently move from one temporary shelter to another (e.g. emergency accommodation, youth refuges, “couch surfing”);
  3. Tertiary homelessness is experienced by people staying in accommodation that falls below minimum community standards (e.g. boarding housing and caravan parks).

This definition was adopted by the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness in 2001 and is widely used in the homelessness sector.

United Nations definition of homelessness

The United Nations identifies homeless people under two broad groups:

FEANTSA definition of homelessness

FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless, is an umbrella of not-for-profit organisations in Europe.  Their definition of homelessness is:

Go to our resources page for more information about homelessness

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