……. Photo: Erica Wheadon
Our 2026 Frontline Staff Wellbeing Survey
Frontline homelessness workers are used to carrying complexity. They navigate trauma, housing instability, family violence, mental health crises and deep financial distress every day.
We’ve known this for a long time.
So, we ran a Frontline Staff Wellbeing Survey to listen, understand and learn more about what’s happening across the sector.
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A sector under sustained strain
It quickly became clear that the sector is under extraordinary strain. Staff and resources are stretched thin, an overwhelming 94% of respondents said rising demand, increasing case complexity and limited funding have negatively impacted staff wellbeing over the past year.
The human toll was evident in the stories shared. One worker described feeling as though they were fighting against a system designed to keep people down. Another spoke of the distress of telling a mother and her children they would need to keep sleeping on the floor because there were simply no housing options available.
On average, respondents rated staff wellbeing at just three out of five.
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When workforce strain becomes system strain
It begs the question, what do these results mean for those needing support? Because reduced staff wellbeing isn’t contained within an organisation, it impacts capacity to assist.
73% of respondents said reduced staff wellbeing has meant a reduced capacity to assist new clients. 62% reported longer wait times and delays to service delivery. 50% reported reduced quality and consistency of support for existing clients.
With fewer new clients being taken on and existing clients waiting longer, continuity becomes harder to maintain and the risk of burnout increases further.
It becomes a cycle that feeds itself.
“The annual grant/contract funding is the hardest aspect to manage. There is no security for positions.”
“We live year to year with uncertainty.”
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Chronic underfunding and funding insecurity
services are operating in survival mode. Short-term contracts, tied funding, annual grants, and insufficient operational budgets. This directly affects staffing, wages, program continuity, and morale. Funding models are not aligned with workforce sustainability.
Demand and complexity in a broken system:
demand has surged dramatically, while housing supply and specialist supports (mental health, Alcohol and Other Drugs, Domestic and Family Violence services) remain inadequate.
“We can only offer a band aid response.”
“Workers often feel like they are working in a broken system.”
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“Burnout has been a big factor in staff turnover.”
“Workers feel unable to take leave.”
“Increased violence and abuse to workers.”
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Burnout, emotional labor and vicarious trauma:
sustained exposure to crisis, trauma, aggression, and unmet need is eroding wellbeing. This is not simply “stress”, it is sustained moral injury and secondary trauma compounded by systemic inadequacy.
Workforce sustainability and conditions:
the sector struggles to recruit, retain, compensate, and properly support staff, both paid and volunteer. Workforce fragility is emerging as a sector-wide risk. Without structural investment in people, service capacity will continue to erode.
“Wages urgently need to be reviewed.”
“We struggle to attract qualified Aboriginal staff.”
“It’s how to recruit younger people as volunteers that is challenging.”
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“A supportive and safe and flexible workplace with a great culture can go some way to
minimising the impacts.”
“Staff are our most valuable asset.”
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Nurturing protective factors:
despite the pressures, there is extraordinary commitment, creativity, and internal peer care across organisations.
Workforce sustainability is not a secondary issue
Homelessness policy conversations often focus, rightly, on housing supply, rental reform and prevention pathways. Our survey makes something else just as importantly clear. Without a stable, supported workforce, the system cannot function effectively, regardless of how much demand increases or how complex needs become.
Wellbeing supports like clinical supervision, reflective practice, professional development and structured training are not workplace perks, they safeguard against attrition and enable continuity and quality. If we want a homelessness response that is humane, effective and sustainable, workforce wellbeing must be treated as essential infrastructure.
The frontline has told us what it needs. The question now is whether funding models, policy settings and sector investment will respond accordingly. Supporting the workforce is not a distraction from solving homelessness.
It is part of the solution.
