The Australian Homelessness Monitor 2022 (AHM 2022) is the third report in Launch Housing’s Homelessness Monitor series and covers the period 2018 – 2022.

The AHM 2022 undertakes the first major analysis spanning the COVID crisis years and contains in-depth examination of the changes in the scale and nature of housing markets and homelessness in Australia, including the social and economic drivers impacting homelessness.

While the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a swift response in the cities of Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, to eliminate rough sleeping, other preexisting trends continued to persist – the growing scale of homelessness nationwide; increases in older Australians experiencing homelessness; and family and domestic violence as the key driver for women and children seeking assistance from specialist homelessness services.

Key findings:

• Rising homelessness has continued to outstrip Australia’s growing population. The average monthly number of people using homelessness services increased by 8 percent in the four years to 2021-22, double the national population increase over that period.
• Cost of living and housing stress are impacting everyday Australians. The average number of people accessing homelessness services because of their inability to pay rent, rose by a staggering 27 percent in the last four years.
• Recent rental market trends have significantly contributed to this growth in homelessness. Between 2020 – 22 there was sizeable spike in rent inflation in the private market across Australia, with rental prices at rates unobserved since 2008. This is having the greatest impact on low-income households, pushing many into homelessness.