Rough sleeping is life-threatening, but it’s also solvable
Sleeping rough on the streets, in cars or tents is increasingly the only option left for thousands of people in Australia. 7,636 people will be facing that option tonight. Families are sleeping in damp tents and people are spending years living on streets. Rough sleeping is dangerous, traumatic, and often life-threatening. But it is also solvable.
In July and August, the team at StreetSmart are focused on raising funds and awareness to support people sleeping rough, funding programs that care for their immediate needs and help to end their experience of homelessness.
The brutality of sleeping rough, and what it costs
Increasing numbers of people sleeping rough is a result of our housing crisis, and it is also a health crisis. Homelessness kills. A recent investigation in early 2024, revealed hundreds of Australians experiencing homelessness are dying more than 30 years prematurely. That’s a life expectancy gap that experts say is worse than any other disadvantaged group in the country. Reporting on 627 deaths, the investigation found those experiencing homelessness dying at age 44, often due to the trauma of rough sleeping.
Rough sleeping is a brutal and exhausting experience. Without adequate shelter people are exposed to the harsh elements. This means heatstroke and dehydration in summer and frostbite and hypothermia at this time of year. Without a place to call home, people experiencing homelessness are at risk of violence and abuse. In fact, those who are homeless are more likely to be the victims of crime than be the perpetrators.
Rough sleeping is costly – to people’s lives and to our systems. A Sydney based study with those who presented to homelessness clinics and were hospitalised, found each admission to cost $81,481. Over a quarter of this cohort were ‘high users’ of the hospital system and 1 in 5 were readmitted within a month. One in-depth study found that the average cost to government over six years for people accessing homelessness services is $186k.
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“What we used to see before was mainly single people, but the trend that is emerging is that we’re seeing families and older people setting up tents in the bush because there is simply nowhere left for them to go.” – Council to Homeless Persons chief executive, Deborah Di Natale
Solutions to end rough sleeping
Communities across Australia are responding to rough sleeping in ways that work, including assertive outreach and Housing First. Assertive outreach is an active and persistent approach to find and engage with those who are rough sleeping or without housing where they frequent. It allows frontline works to side-step the barriers people face in accessing support, and focuses on establishing a relationship of trust, to support a transition from homelessness.
With a Housing First approach, communities are ending homelessness. At it’s core,the Housing First approach acknowledges that for people to exit away from homelessness, they need housing first and foremost. In Australia, the ‘Advance to Zero’ movements are our Housing First leaders. These projects are collaborative, community led, data driven, responses to actively reduce chronic homelessness in a specific geographic area. Through these projects, local services work together to develop a list of people sleeping rough (By Name List), and target support to those most vulnerable. The aim is to link people with the appropriate support they need and ultimately move each person on the list into a home.
“The challenges faced by rough sleepers are numerous; family violence; financial and social exclusion; poor mental and physical health; exposure to extreme weather events; marginalisation and trauma. Our assertive outreach team targets rough sleepers to deliver healthcare and housing pathways.” – Merri Outreach Support Services, (StreetSmart Grant Recipients) VIC (Naarm)
Join our collective action
StreetSmart’s approach is to build a community of supporters to help fund smaller, frontline, grassroots community organisations. These organisations are trusted by locals and are often the first place people turn to in crisis. At the same time they struggle for funding due to their size and lack of resources. We direct these community grants to effective programs in regions and suburbs that have high rates of homelessness and disadvantage, and to vulnerable cohorts of people.
Our bimonthly projects generate collective action from individuals, corporate, philanthropic trusts and foundations. If you are looking to partner for positive impact and respond to homelessness in Australia, please reach out at partners@streetsmartaustralia.org to chat more.
Donations throughout July and August will be helping people experiencing rough sleeping, or in their cars and tents. Together we will help provide care through assertive outreach, supply basic essentials like hygiene packs and clothing, and end primary homelessness through Housing First solutions.
