Bold reform or policy overreach? Australia's attack on homelessness: 2008–2013

Abstract

In late 2007, a national Labor government came to office in Australia and identified permanently reducing homelessness as a policy priority. At the time, Australia's new approach to addressing homelessness was celebrated and widely supported as innovative and timely. This policy review asks: what constituted Australia's new approach to homelessness policy; what was the basis for implementing the approach; and what does the evidence say about its effectiveness? Our analysis shows that, based on official intentions, new programmes, and increased levels of funding, recent Australian strategies to respond to homelessness are meaningfully different from the former crisis-based approach. Advocates for Australia's contemporary approach drew upon a range of normative, economic and evidence-based policy arguments. Although there is much to be optimistic about, we show that there is little data available to measure the effectiveness of Australia's efforts to achieve targeted reductions in homelessness; the limited data available indicates that homelessness at the population level is not decreasing as intended.

Keywords:

• homelessness
• Australia
• social policy
• evidence
• headline targets

Notes

¹ We acknowledge that local governments responsible for Australia's largest capital cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, do play a role in policies and strategies to address homelessness.