The extent of homelessness for children in Australia represents a shocking failure of public policy. In 2022-23, more than
76,000 children sought help from homelessness services – almost 16,000 of them alone, and many fleeing domestic violence, abuse or neglect.

This snapshot shows that Australia’s child homelessness crisis is a blight on our nation, stemming  from successive government failure at the state and federal level. 

Key findings

• First Nations children are overrepresented among children experiencing homelessness, making up 32 per cent of homeless children nationally, despite comprising only 6.8 per cent of the population under 18.
• The number of children still homeless after contact with homelessness services grew overall by 3.2% and in some states by as much as 20%.
• A further 19,833 children were turned away from support services without being provided any assistance at all as a result of the severe lack of resources and overwhelming demand faced by the sector.
• NSW had the highest number of unaccompanied children seeking help from specialist services (7,152), followed by Victoria (3,271) and South Australia (2,306).

These figures underscore the need for urgent action to tackle child homelessness in Australia. Recommendations from the report  include immediate investment into homelessness services on the front line of the housing crisis, specialised support and accommodation for unaccompanied homeless children and increased investment in the social housing and income support needed to drive down family homelessness.