In December 2021, the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) released the Pathways to homelessness report. Prepared by Taylor Fry, and commissioned by the DCJ Homelessness Strategy Unit, the report analyses a major cross-agency linked dataset to identify the factors that lead people to seek assistance from homelessness services, and highlights opportunities to support people who are at high risk of homelessness. The findings support investment in initiatives with the greatest potential to improve outcomes across the whole service system.

Key findings:

• People at risk of homelessness are more likely to access other government services
• Risk of homelessness is concentrated in a very small proportion of the population
• Many government services are good potential early intervention points
• A number of groups of people are at elevated risk of homelessness compared to the general population
• Aboriginal people are overrepresented among people presenting to homelessness services