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Prevention and early intervention have become part of the Australian policy discourse; however, the prevention and early intervention of youth homelessness remain significantly underdeveloped and underfunded in practice. Consequently, too many young people experience homelessness. This article presents the 'Community of Schools and Services' (COSS) Model as an innovative approach to the prevention of youth homelessness. The COSS Model is an Australian place-based collective impact approach that uses data gathered via population screening in secondary schools to identify and then support adolescents at risk of homelessness and also reorganizes the local support system available to vulnerable young people and their families. This paper is not the result of a research project. Rather, this paper presents the findings of the Embedded Development and Outcomes Measurement (EDOM) report, which is a feature of the COSS Model. This paper is limited to findings from the COSS Model implementation in Albury, NSW, known as the Albury Project, from 2019 to 2023. The Albury Project has demonstrated significant reductions in the risk of homelessness and entry into the local homelessness service system. Findings reveal that: (1) when COSS Model support is delivered to identified at-risk students, 40–50% of individuals are no longer at such high risk of homelessness 12-months later; (2) only 3–5% of students identified as at risk of homelessness and supported through the COSS Model sought assistance from local homelessness services in the following two years; and (3) the flow of adolescents (12–18 years) into the local homelessness services was reduced by 40% from 2019 to 2023. As an evidence-based, complex innovation, there are major policy, funding, and implementation challenges in scaling the model to multiple community sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores migrant Black African youths' experiences of looking for and finding work in Newcastle, a deindustrializing Australian city. Data for this paper were drawn from interviews conducted with young people who migrated to Australia as temporary and permanent residents. Drawing on concepts of coloniality, racialization, bodywork, and hidden labor, this paper demonstrates how, when looking for work, participants' names get attached to their racialized bodies—a situation which deems them as suitable or not for specific kinds of work. Their strategies of finding work differ according to their migration status; that is, temporary residents draw on their personal networks, whereas some permanent residents with full citizenship rights rely on social welfare support services to find work. However, irrespective of the different strategies used to find work, they all end up doing jobs that they described as "work which others do not wish to do." I argue that these experiences re‐articulate the coloniality of labor because, as workers in these jobs, they play a crucial role in the economic transformation taking place in the city due to deindustrialization. This is not merely because they form part of the workforce responsible for working in unwanted jobs, but because they are also consumers of Newcastle's emerging welfare support and educational services sectors. The paper contributes to an understanding of how race shapes the labor market experiences of racialized youth in deindustrializing labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops knowledge of the logistics of moving house amongst older people living in insecure housing. These people typically do not move once and settle into a new house, but face ongoing moves driven by factors including housing affordability, tenure conditions and eviction. The paper identifies four domains of experience faced by people undergoing cumulative, involuntary residential moves: the material (process of relocating oneself and possessions), economic (costs of moving house), embodied (physical experience) and affective (how relocation is experienced and felt). The logistics of relocation are examined through the experiences of single older women living in insecure housing in the greater Sydney region of Australia. The accounts of these women foreground the costs and challenges of insecure housing that are a consequence of relocation. Conceptually this work contributes to understandings of mobility-based disadvantage in older age through drawing out the ways that the logistics of moving house – of relocating oneself and possessions – contribute in distinct ways to mobility-based disadvantage through risks to identity and senses of home. Empirically it addresses gaps in gerontological and housing scholarship through developing knowledge of the logistics and experiences of ongoing, involuntary residential moves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review investigates the characteristics included in the Behavioural Model for Vulnerable Populations applied to people experiencing homelessness. This review underpins the development of a novel tool to assess the health needs and capacity of people experiencing homelessness to access health care in Australia. Included papers were primary studies, written in English, published from 2000 onwards, participants aged 18 years and over and experiencing homelessness. Databases searched were CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, between March to June 2020. The Joanna Briggs Appraisal criteria were used to quality appraise included studies. Fifteen papers met the eligibility criteria and were included. The total participant sample size was 42,152. Provision of professional support and case management were significant factors in increasing access to care for people experiencing homelessness. Findings suggest that the Behavioural Model for Vulnerable Populations is a valuable tool in identifying health needs and predicting health service use. Included studies indicate that using the Behavioural Model for Vulnerable Populations can facilitate provision of targeted health services to people experiencing homelessness by identifying unmet needs. The findings of this review are valuable to health service design and policy, to increase access to care for people experiencing homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Forgotten Australians" are the estimated half a million children who were placed in institutional care in Australia from the 1920s to the 1980s. Increasing numbers are entering older age but many are poorly positioned to age well and with the supports they need. This is often because the lasting effects of childhood institutional care have contributed to poor housing outcomes, including housing insecurity, reliance on social housing, prevalence of rental stress and experiences of homelessness. This paper presents a review of the evidence on the housing experiences and outcomes of people who spent time in childhood institutional care. The evidence review was complemented by qualitative interviews with community service practitioners and representatives of advocacy groups. Based on the prior evidence and fieldwork, we identify data and service gaps that are likely to undermine the capacity of the housing and aged care sectors to improve the care and supports available for Forgotten Australians. We suggest potential improvements to service delivery for people who experienced institutional care as children and directions for further research. This paper contributes to a stronger evidence base around the housing and care needs of Forgotten Australians in mid‐ and later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite a significant evidence base illustrating the issue of housing insecurity and homelessness experienced by women over the age of 55 in Australia [Pawson et al., 2018; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2021b; Mission Australia 2022; Per Capita 2022], there continues to be a knowledge gap in the representation of older women in current Federal and New South Wales (NSW) State Government housing and homelessness policies and initiatives. This paper aims to identify the extent and ways in which older women were represented (or not represented) in the Federal and NSW State housing and homelessness policies in 2022. Design/methodology/approach: Of the total primary and supplementary Federal and NSW State policy and strategy documents, 16 were collected through a systematic review and then analysed using a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework and feminist lens to explore quotes, phrases, keywords and language choices which suggested prevalent themes, rhetorical devices and dominant discourses. Findings: Three significant themes were identified by the analysis (1) "relinquished responsibility", (2) "inconsistent rhetoric" and (3) "homogenising and ideological cherry picking". These themes presented the authors with three main discussion points to inform policy reform which we have addressed in relation to policy implications, evidence-based policy decision-making and impacts on older women. Originality/value: The combination of a systematic review with CDA provides a unique approach to exploring homelessness policy for older women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper was to assess the phenomena of homelessness and inadequate housing in South Africa and Australia. The paper used a review of literature method. Findings show poor quality building materials, many people in need of housing, long waiting lists and slow delivery, and the challenges governments face in implementing and managing housing programmes effectively and efficiently are among the problems associated with the provision of adequate housing, according to the. All these factors have significantly contributed to both the proliferation of informal settlements and ever-increasing numbers of homeless population. Evidently, the successful implementation of housing programmes is hampered by a lack of political will and insufficient commitment on the part of governments to fulfil their obligations with respect to ensuring that all citizens have access to decent and adequate housing. There is a need for shifts in policy towards a more holistic approach that also includes measures to promote empowerment through selfemployment and other income-related provisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to assess the health, social and economic outcomes associated with rough sleeping among women and compare those outcomes with those of (1) men sleeping rough, and (2) women experiencing other forms of homelessness (such as being housed in temporary supported accommodation due to family and domestic violence). The paper analyses survey data using the Vulnerability Index‐Service Prioritization Decision Analysis Tool (VI‐SPDAT) collected from 2735 women experiencing homelessness and 3124 men sleeping rough in Australian cities from 2010 to 2017. We find that women sleeping rough report poorer physical and mental health outcomes and greater problematic drug and or alcohol use relative to both men sleeping rough and women experiencing other types of homelessness (all p < 0.5). Women sleeping rough report significantly higher levels of crisis service utilisation (Β = 17.9, SE = 3.9, p < 0.001) and interactions with police in the previous 6 months (Β = 1.9, SE = 0.3, p < 0.001) than women experiencing homelessness not sleeping rough. Women sleeping rough also report greater healthcare utilisation, and, therefore, healthcare costs, than women experiencing homelessness not sleeping rough and men sleeping rough (all p < 0.05). From a policy perspective, the evidence presented in this paper supports a social determinants approach that moves from addressing symptoms of poor health outcomes associated with homelessness to preventing and ending homelessness with a particular focus on the life trajectories of women. Integrated services and homelessness strategies need to be developed through a gender lens, providing women sleeping rough with tailored permanent housing with wrap‐around supportive housing to address poor health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it proposes a critical posthumanist orientation to social work as an approach to address the impediments to care experienced by interspecies families. Secondly, it challenges the anthropocentric assumptions that underpin this exclusion of nonhuman family members in human services disciplines such as social work. Design/methodology/approach: This article presents primary data from a qualitative study into social work and other human services practice in the family violence and homelessness sectors in the state of Victoria, Australia. Findings: Social workers undertook companion animal-inclusive practice to counter vulnerability to interspecies families caused by gender- and species-based violence, and by homelessness. Gender- and species-based violence was exacerbated by a lack of refuge options, and contributed to women considering their companion animals to be their children. The vulnerability that homelessness brought upon interspecies families was amplified by stigma within and external to social work and related professions, and the impediment that experiences of homelessness had on being able to provide care for their nonhuman family members. These factors shaped practice with interspecies families. Scope for future practice was also identified. Research limitations/implications: The research findings can be used to inform policy change that includes consideration of nonhuman family members, as well as critical posthuman program design in social work education. Originality/value: Companion animal-inclusive practice with interspecies families in social work is an under researched area, and there is little empirical data available on the nature of this work in Australia. This paper addresses this gap by centring social workers' own accounts of practice. This paper has scope to contribute to education in social work and other welfare fields, with the potential to empower students to challenge assumptions about social work being solely focused on human-centred concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth studies has called for new ways of thinking about transitions for young people. This paper argues for new ways of understanding times during transition, particularly for young people with complex support needs. Young people (16–26 years) with complex support needs are those who experience multiple forms of social disadvantage, and who depend on siloed services to support them. Complex support needs are created by the intersection between a person and a complex system of services including education, health, disability, health, mental health, homelessness, youth justice and child protection. In this context, transition has been understood as a physical movement between and within separate services. Using the arts based method of body mapping with 31 young people with complex support needs from three Eastern states of Australia, this paper reports on how young people themselves experience transition. Young people identified three distinct times during transition that resonated with existing literature on critical moments, liminal periods and meaning making times. However, these times were not sequential or singular, nor were they a reflection of service transitions. Instead, this paper contends that times during transition were not as much about moving forward, as about simultaneously living with complex and chaotic pasts and presents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, like many high-income countries, food insecurity is associated with increased risks of chronic diseases, sub-optimal development outcomes in children, and mental health conditions including depression and anxiety. Food insecure households employ a range of strategies, including the use of food charity, to help alleviate hunger and meet cost of living pressures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the lived experience of food insecurity for welfare-dependent households, and to examine these experiences within a structural violence framework. Structural violence investigations seek to understand the distal causal factors that can help explain poor health patterns and inequities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with customers (n = 78) of food pantries, soup kitchens, and community development programs (June 2018 to January 2019) in the state of Victoria, Australia. Thematic analysis established evidence of controlling, demeaning and depriving practices in the interactions between the participants and the services and staff at national welfare providers and food charities. The same providers and charities nominally set up to address the exact situations in which participants found themselves. The findings of this study suggest that food and social services are an on-the-ground setting through which structural violence is enacted and experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world where opportunities are increasingly limited, young people are encouraged to become resilient and entrepreneurial in their pursuit of the traditional markers of adulthood. Social enterprise and community organisations dedicated to supporting young people seek to recast these expectations by providing supportive work and training environments and cultures and encouraging young people to find passion and hope in economic conditions that have failed to deliver the security and wellbeing that was promised. These organisations identify and respond to complex issues like unemployment and disengagement, homelessness and housing precarity, and provide personal development, support, education, training and employment options. In this paper, we explore how youth-focused social enterprise and community organisation programmes shape dispositions of resilience and entrepreneurialism. Drawing on the work of Butler and Anthanasiou and Dey and Mason, we argue that social organisations re-imagine the 'social therapeutics' that young people may require in relation to their participation in neoliberal forms of governmentality. We hope to challenge conceptualisations of such interventions as purely bounded by neoliberal and pro-capitalist therapeutic logics, by identifying the complex and sometimes contradictory goals that community organisations and social enterprises work towards in supporting young people to navigate a precarious economic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness is a significant social problem across advanced capitalist societies, with enduring effects on those who experience it. Consequently, detailed enquiry into people's lived experiences of homelessness is critical to enhance understanding and inform more effective responses to the problem. This paper presents findings of a study examining nine individuals' experiences of homelessness in Australia. Narrative analysis foregrounds the ontological dimensions and implications of their experiences, demonstrating how their homeless pathways were characterised by enduring feelings of ontological insecurity. Discussion of these findings highlights how participants' attempts to overcome homelessness and attain ontological security represent an ongoing struggle, shaped by individual biographies and the structural constraints within contemporary Australian society. The paper argues that further consideration of the material and non-material dimensions of ontological security across all phases of homeless pathways can enhance understanding of homelessness and inform efforts to develop more effective responses to this complex social problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is increasingly recognized in Australia that single, older women are particularly vulnerable to housing-related stress and homelessness. This paper reports on a qualitative study that explored the housing experiences of single, older, non-homeowning women in regional New South Wales, Australia. Interviews were conducted with 47 participants living independently in precarious housing. This paper focuses upon the housing preferences expressed by the participants. A feminist standpoint perspective was adopted and thematic analysis was employed to interrogate the data. Findings showed the women's primary preference is security of tenure in housing that is affordable and suited to their needs. Further, they want to feel they have autonomy in the private sphere. Over the participants' life course, twin discourses of patriarchy and neoliberalism were identified as influential in shaping social arrangements, both in Australia and other developed countries. These findings may assist policy-makers in planning future housing for this ageing cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness services and policy have historically tended to be organised by an explicitly conditional logic, wherein people experiencing homelessness must prove their "housing readiness" before accessing settled housing. This model has been robustly challenged in recent decades by "housing‐led" approaches that ostensibly eschew conditionality and prioritise the rapid rehousing of people experiencing homelessness. Various countries now include housing‐led approaches in the national policy frameworks, including Australia, which overhauled its approach to homelessness in 2008, and Scotland, where a housing‐led approach is supported by a legal right to housing for homeless households. Notwithstanding this policy shift, conditionality remains an enduring feature of responses to homelessness in both jurisdictions. This paper sheds light on this phenomenon by comparing the Australian experience with that of Scotland. We demonstrate how conditionality remains a feature of both jurisdictions; however, there is greater effort in Scotland to identify and minimise conditionality, whereas in Australia it is able to persist relatively unchallenged. We conclude with some reflections on what Australia can learn from Scotland's relative success, highlighting the importance of a national‐level policy framework and an adequate affordable housing supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families experiencing homelessness are an increasing phenomenon in Australia. However, the question of why some families living in poverty and disadvantage become homeless and others do not is not well explained in the literature. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), this paper investigates how recent "shock" or crisis events, poor health and financial stress interact with social capital and emotional well-being to affect housing security for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian families living in poverty. The analysis draws on 307 cases (individuals with dependent and resident children) from Journeys Home, a longitudinal survey of extremely disadvantaged Australian welfare recipients. The results are explained within a critical realist understanding of depth ontology, stratification, emergence and the interaction between structure and agency. Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory provides a framework for thinking about homelessness as a severe form of poverty and resource depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of increasing welfare conditionality, governmental responses to homelessness in Australia continue to be influenced by neoliberal discourses of personal responsibility. This is reflected in their emphasis on individualised interventions and lack of attention to structural drivers of homelessness. Research examining these issues has primarily focused on policies and practices aiming to responsibilise individuals' conduct, and less so on how those with lived experiences view and apportion responsibility for homelessness. In recognition of this gap, this paper reports findings from a qualitative study examining the views of responsibility expressed by nine individuals with lived experiences of homelessness. Findings demonstrate that participants recognised their own responsibilities, yet also highlighted significant constraints on individual agency associated with being homeless and emphasised unmet responsibilities of governments. Our analysis demonstrates how participants' views contrast with neoliberal discourses of personal responsibility, and problematise notions of "fair reciprocity" on which they are premised. We argue their views can be interpreted as supporting alternative notions of shared responsibility for homelessness. These findings have implications for policy and practice and highlight the need to further engage with lived experience perspectives to advance more effective and socially just responses to homelessness in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Co-existing health conditions and frequent hospital usage are pervasive in homeless populations. Without a home to be discharged to, appropriate discharge care and treatment compliance are difficult. The Medical Respite Centre (MRC) model has gained traction in the USA, but other international examples are scant. The purpose of this paper is to address this void, presenting findings from an evaluation of The Cottage, a small short-stay respite facility for people experiencing homelessness attached to an inner-city hospital in Melbourne, Australia.Design/methodology/approach This mixed methods study uses case studies, qualitative interview data and hospital administrative data for clients admitted to The Cottage in 2015. Hospital inpatient admissions and emergency department presentations were compared for the 12-month period pre- and post-The Cottage.Findings Clients had multiple health conditions, often compounded by social isolation and homelessness or precarious housing. Qualitative data and case studies illustrate how The Cottage couples medical care and support in a home-like environment. The average stay was 8.8 days. There was a 7 per cent reduction in the number of unplanned inpatient days in the 12-months post support.Research limitations/implications The paper has some limitations including small sample size, data from one hospital only and lack of information on other services accessed by clients (e.g. housing support) limit attribution of causality.Social implications MRCs provide a safe environment for individuals to recuperate at a much lower cost than inpatient admissions.Originality/value There is limited evidence on the MRC model of care outside of the USA, and the findings demonstrate the benefits of even shorter-term respite post-discharge for people who are homeless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care, commonly called care leavers, are known to be a vulnerable group. Many experience poor outcomes leading them to become homeless or involved in the criminal justice system. Yet compared to most other Anglophone democracies, Australia lacks mandatory assistance for care leavers beyond 18 years of age. There are also major legislative, policy, and program differences between care leaver entitlements in the individual states and territories. This paper argues that the Commonwealth Government should introduce a nationally consistent extended care system that would require all jurisdictions to provide a minimum standard of support until at least 21 years of age. A uniform set of extended care standards is even more vital in the context of COVID-19. IMPLICATIONS Many Australian care leavers have poor life chances despite recent advances in the support programs provided by the states and territories. A nationally consistent extended care program is likely to progress improved opportunities and outcomes for care leavers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to report on the findings of a qualitative study that explored the views of 53 service providers assisting Indigenous young people (known in Australia as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth) transitioning from out-of-home care (OOHC) in Australia. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was adopted involving semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 53 representatives of state and territory government departments, non-government organisation service providers and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs) across Australia. The project was designed to gain the perspectives of those working within the system and their views on how it interacts with Indigenous care leavers. Interview questions aimed to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of the leaving care support systems available to this cohort, as well as the key challenges facing service providers in supporting them. Finally, the study aimed to make recommendations for policy development in this area and identify potential best practice service responses. Findings: The study found that the OOHC service systems continue to fail Indigenous care leavers, their families and communities. Study findings revealed that Indigenous care-leavers face substantial challenges and that the support systems for those leaving OOHC are often culturally insensitive and ineffective. Many Indigenous OOHC leavers lacked the supports they needed to develop safe and ongoing relationships with their traditional Country, family and communities. To promote more positive transitions and outcomes, effective practice responses were identified, including culturally safe programmes and proportional funding for ACCOs to advance greater self-determination. Originality/value: This research is the first national study in Australia to examine the specific transition from care pathways and experiences of Indigenous young people. The findings add to the limited existing knowledge on Indigenous care leavers globally and should inform practice and policy innovations with this cohort in Australia and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes and evaluates the application of an explicitly critical realist methodology to a quantitative doctoral research project on the causes of family homelessness in Australia. It is offered as an example of a critical realist approach to empirical research, in the hope that it will provide ideas and motivation to other scholars seeking a critical realist foundation to their research practice. The paper demonstrates the role of critical realism in informing and defining the analytical and theoretical approach I took. It shows how the philosophy influenced the foundations and practical development of my work. It describes the process of moving from empirical data to theoretical models by stepping through and describing each stage. Finally, I offer an assessment of how critical realism changed, enabled, improved, and liberated my project; that is, what advantage critical realism offered to explaining a complex social phenomenon and crisis in contemporary Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of digital disparities have focused on socio-spatial differences across neighbourhoods, regions and other kinds of places, but the same place can produce different experiences of connectivity, a phenomenon labelled 'variable geometries of connection' by Crang, Crosbie and Graham (2006: 2551) [2006. Crang, M., Crosbie, T., & Graham, S. Variable geometries of connection: Urban digital divides and the uses of information technology. Urban Studies, 43(13), 2551–2570]. In this paper, I draw on research on the role of mobile phones and the internet for people experiencing homelessess in Australia to suggest that dependence on smartphones for access to information and communication when homeless, in combination with the design and regulation of urban spaces, structures the mobilities of homeless young people, resulting in distinctive connectivity needs and barriers. Homeless young people overcome many of their immediate difficulties of digital access through practices of 'survival infrastructuring', a term I propose to describe the practices of marginalised actors to make their media work in the face of uneven, precarious and costly connectivity. Highlighting these connectivity experiences and practices may help efforts to take action on digital exclusion and assist homeless young people by taking into account differential access needs within specific spatial and social contexts. I make this argument drawing on findings from two studies carried out between 2014 and 2016 on the access and use of the internet and mobile phones among homeless Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the available literature on single older non-home owning women in Australia and their housing issues. Preliminary information suggests that this subset of the population is increasingly at risk of becoming homeless or inadequately housed in later life. In fact, there is a historical dearth of research on women’s housing in general. This invisibility and vulnerability is interrogated within this paper through a feminist standpoint lens. We argue that in order to better understand the situation for single older women who do not own their own homes, it is necessary to revisit the social landscape inhabited by these women in their early years. Firstly, however, the current landscape is explored. It appears that ageing and single status are compounding factors which place non-home owning women at higher risk of homelessness or inappropriate housing. The paper then attempts to assess how the social and economic conditions that were extant in the mid-twentieth century led to the present situation. Our analysis leads us to suggest that women’s traditional roles in society are largely responsible for housing insecurity in their later years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first considers the impacts on children who have experienced domestic and family violence and consequential homelessness. This is followed by an account of an Australian qualitative research project, Safe from the Start, which was designed to identify and form a register of intervention activities and therapeutic play for affected young children aged up to six. The key finding of this innovative applied research, substantiated by the participatory evaluation, is that effective early intervention with such children can be conducted by non-specialised workers and parents, given the right training and tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy initiatives in remote Indigenous Australia aim to improve Indigenous health and well-being, and reduce homelessness. But they have raised controversy because they impinge on Indigenous aspirations to remain on homeland communities, require mainstreaming of Indigenous housing and transfer Indigenous land to the state. This paper uses recognition theory to argue that if policies of normalization are imposed on remote living Indigenous people in ways that take insufficient account of their cultural realities they may be experienced as a form of misrecognition and have detrimental policy effects. The paper examines the responses of remote living Indigenous people to the National Partnerships at the time of their introduction in 2009–2010. Drawing on interview and administrative data from a national study on Indigenous population mobility, the paper argues although the policies have been welcomed, they have also been a source of anxiety and anger. These feelings are associated with a sense of violated justice arising from experiences of misrecognition. The paper argues this can lead tenants to depart their homes as a culturally sanctioned form of resistance to state control. This population mobility is associated with homelessness because it takes place in the context of housing exclusion. Policy implications include developing new models of intercultural professional practice and employing a capacity-building approach to local Indigenous organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines couch surfing as a form of youth homelessness. The focus is on adolescents who do not have support from parental homes and who frequently move from one temporary living arrangement to another, without a secure ‘place to be’. Drawing on the findings of sociological research with a group of young couch surfers in Australia, the aim is to unpack the marginalising social processes that produce this practice as an outcome of early home leaving. Contrary to the view that adolescent couch surfers are managing their living situations for the time being, this research suggests that couch surfing is in itself an experience and product of dislocation, which (re)inscribes disadvantage. Reflecting on the interview accounts, the paper first shows how the reliance on informal living arrangements is one way in which young people are contending with the risks of early home leaving ‘for themselves’ – in lieu of preferable alternatives from formalised welfare systems. Second, in bringing attention to the tenuousness attached to their reliance on informal living arrangements, this paper shows how couch surfing emerges as a form of homelessness without ‘rooflessness’: a situation in which young people's attempts to gain ontological security are consistently undermined. The findings of this research broaden our understanding of the social and political inequalities limiting young people's resources for negotiating adult life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an aged-care system that provides a wide range of residential and community-based aged care services to elderly men and women that are appropriately monitored and audited, homeless people in Australia have historically found it difficult or impossible to access those services. It remains an appalling blight on the aged care industry in general, and the social work profession in particular, that this apparent selective exclusion of the most vulnerable of elderly people should continue with little or no comment, criticism, or action. The present article is a policy commentary rather than an academic research paper that aims to alert readers to the plight of elderly homeless people. The paper provides some insight into the life of an elderly homeless person; describes the interaction between elderly homeless people and the aged care system; discusses services provided by Wintringham, a welfare company specialising in providing aged care and housing services to aged homeless people; and explores some of the policy responses suggested by Wintringham. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply statistical matching methods to a national longitudinal dataset of Australians facing housing insecurity to estimate the impacts of social housing on employment, education, health, incarceration and homelessness. We find social housing in Australia provides an important 'safety net' protecting people from homelessness. However, at least in the short run, individuals in social housing have similar outcomes in terms of employment, education, physical and mental health, and incarceration to other comparable individuals not in social housing. These are the first estimates of causal impacts of social housing, simultaneously estimating impacts on a range of shelter and non-shelter outcomes highlighted as important by the broader social housing literature. They also provide an interesting contrast with the existing US estimates. These results are potentially due to strict targeting of individuals into social housing and that they represent the average effect across individuals who may experience substantially different impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]