Homelessness Indicators 003-06010090

The Homelessness Indicator 'flag' is a service delivery tool that provides an alert to all Services Australia staff that a customer is homeless or at risk of homelessness. It also provides information about what intervention has been completed or is in progress. The Homelessness Indicator is designed to be used for all payment types.

The Circumstances Impacting Compliance screen provides an overview of the circumstances a customer has that might indicate they have difficulty meeting their compulsory requirements and is only used for customers who have job seeking requirements.

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 will be automatically updated when further changes are made to the Homelessness Indicator.

The Homelessness Indicator is only available for agency staff to code and view. However, where the information recorded in the Homelessness Indicator transfers to the Circumstances Impacting Compliance screen, the provider will see this as a circumstance on their system.

Some Employment Services Providers specialise in assisting those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Prior to referring a job seeker to a provider, it is important to ensure the job seeker is made aware of services that are available to them (including any relevant specialised providers), so that they can be referred to the most appropriate provider.

No. It is important not to make assumptions about a customer's accommodation status without clarifying this with the customer. Sometimes there will be obvious triggers that a customer is homeless and sometimes these will be more hidden, so if unsure, ask. In summary, only code a Homelessness Indicator where a customer is actually homeless or at risk of homelessness, not as a matter of routine.

While some customer's may not want assistance from the agency, it is important to record a Homelessness Indicator for any customer who is identified as homeless, provided they give their consent. This contributes to enabling staff to provide a better service offer to customers who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Once a customer has found safe and secure accommodation and is no longer homeless, update the Homelessness Status with 'No longer homeless and not at risk for becoming homeless'. This is equivalent to removing the indicator from a record.

Yes. The Privacy legislation means the customer must give consent for this information to be coded on their record. Check customers are aware of the importance of having an Indicator coded on their record. Like a Display on Access DOC, it is designed to alert and inform staff that a customer is vulnerable.

This information is not shared with external agencies except with the consent of the customer.