Homelessness Indicators 003-06010090

Services Australia has a zero tolerance approach to child abuse.

A staff member must act when they see or hear behaviour that raises concern about a child or young person’s safety. Follow the agency's Risk Identification and Reporting model when identifying and responding to child safety concerns. See Risk identification and management of threats to the safety or welfare of a child.

Services Australia defines 'homelessness' as someone:

• without conventional accommodation (for example, sleeping rough, squatting, living in a car), or
• who lives in, or moves frequently between, temporary accommodation arrangements. For example, with friends or extended family, emergency accommodation, youth refuges

Services Australia defines 'at risk of homelessness' as someone who:

• lives medium to long term in a boarding house, caravan park or hotel, where accommodation is not covered by a lease
• lives in accommodation which falls below the general community standards which surround health and wellbeing. For example, access to personal amenities, security against threat, privacy and autonomy
• is facing eviction
• lives in accommodation not of an appropriate standard:
• that may be detrimental to their physical and mental wellbeing, and/or
• where they have no sense of belonging or connection. For example, Indigenous Australians living in crowded conditions and/or disconnected from their land, family/kin, spiritual and cultural beliefs and practices

Note: staff must consider the individual's own perception about the suitability of their accommodation when applying this definition. Some customers prefer to be homeless for several reasons and may not consider themselves homeless.

Indigenous customers face specific homelessness issues. Homelessness in the Indigenous context is complex and multidimensional. Most definitions of homelessness are based on the non-Indigenous concept of house and home as a physical entity.

Indigenous concepts of a home include a spiritual aspect. An Indigenous person may apply the concept of ‘home’ to a place or set of places, one of which involves conventional accommodation.

This includes a sense of belonging or acceptance in an area. Indigenous people may not see themselves as homeless as long as their connections to their home place and community are intact. Many traditional and older Indigenous people prefer, as a lifestyle choice, to live in accommodation, considered to be substandard.

Categories of Indigenous Homelessness

There are five categories of Indigenous Homelessness:

• Lack of access to stable shelter
• Spiritual forms of homelessness
• Over-crowding
• Relocation and transient homelessness
• Leaving an unsafe or unstable home

While Indigenous Australians may have similar contributing factors to homelessness as other Australians, it is important to be aware of the differences that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous Australians in remote, rural and urban areas have varied levels of social and economic disadvantage which impacts the extent and nature of their homelessness.

See the Resources page for a link to the Payment and Service Finder, staff can use this to locate appropriate referral options based on the customer's needs.

When a customer is experiencing, or is at risk of homelessness, Service Officers must ensure they are provided with additional support and information to:

• lodge a claim for an income support payment, if they are not on payment
• apply for a formal review of a decision, if they disagree with it

Service Officers should:

• code a Homelessness Indicator on the customer's record, if the customer consents. If the customer does not consent, this should be documented on the customers record
• consider if an internal referral to an agency specialist is required
• consider if an external referral within the community is required. For example emergency accommodation or welfare agency assistance if the customer consents

Where the customer has compulsory participation requirements and a Homelessness Indicator is recorded, information regarding the risk of, or ongoing or temporary homelessness will automatically display under the title of Accommodation Arrangements on the Circumstances Impacting Compliance screen. The circumstance will display as 'Automatically created - yet to assess impact' until a Service Officer is required to assess the impact of this circumstance on compliance. This does not need to be actioned at the time of recording the Homelessness Indicator.

This information is updated when further changes are made to the Homelessness Indicator.

A Homelessness Indicator identifies a customer who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. It is a tool designed to improve staff awareness of a customer's personal situation and alert attention to changing the service offer to a vulnerable group. These customers require additional support and understanding. The homelessness indicator will display under the Complex Servicing section of the Snapshot page in Process Direct.

For Services Australia purposes, homelessness and at risk of becoming homeless are experienced when an individual or family has inadequate access to safe and secure housing which meets community standards.

A Service Officer may become aware of a customer experiencing homelessness or risk of homelessness when the customer:

• claims a Crisis Payment including for family and domestic violence
• claims Unreasonable To Live At Home (UTLAH) rate of Youth Allowance (YA)
• claims an Advance Payment
• requests change in Paycode
• lodges a new claim
• advises a Change of Address
• requests a weekly payment
• advises any change in circumstances
• requests an urgent payment
• during a conversation where the customer self-identifies that they are about to become homeless or are homeless
• requests an explanation or applies for a formal review of a decision

A customer advising any change in circumstances can prompt a Service Officer to make further enquiries and discuss the customer's current circumstances to identify whether they are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Use of the Homelessness Indicator is not restricted to only job seekers. If appropriate, any customer can have a Homelessness Indicator on their record.

Note: customers must provide consent for the Homeless Indicator to be coded on their record, including when the customer has completed the update online. See Frequently Asked Questions on the Resources page for more information.

The recording of a Homelessness Indicator does not, by itself, exempt a job seeker from mutual obligation requirements. The impact on a jobseeker's capacity to comply with compulsory requirements must be considered when determining if the jobseeker has a reasonable excuse for a non-compliance event. For example, before a decision is made to apply a financial penalty regarding a mutual obligation or work refusal failure.