Pictured (left to right) Adelaide Day Centre, Joyce, Patty, Nehemiah, Gina, Kim
Frontline workers are there when someone needs help. We're here to help them.
Frontline workers are there when someone reaches out for help. Answering phones. Opening doorways. Listening, assessing, advocating and supporting.
And they’re doing this work under increasingly impossible conditions.
Across Australia, homelessness services are facing rising demand, limited housing options, and stretched resources. For the workers on the frontline, this means carrying crisis not in one moment, but every single day.
It’s the weight of knowing what support someone needs and not being able to provide it. It’s the build up of difficult conversations, unanswered questions, and decisions that leave a mark long after the day ends.
Because the job doesn’t really stop at 5pm.
When support comes at a cost.
It means constant exposure to distress, trauma, and uncertainty.
Over time, this takes a toll.
Many frontline workers experience burnout and what they describe as “moral distress”. The challenge of knowing what care is needed, but not being able to deliver it because the options simply are not there.
This isn’t happening because people don’t care. It’s happening because our safety system is under extraordinary pressure.
Services report being unable to answer phone calls at times. Doors are forced to close when capacity is exhausted. Caseloads continue to grow while solutions remain limited.
The emotional impact of turning people away cannot be ignored, and for many workers, it erodes the meaning they once found in their role.
This is what it means to carry crisis every day.
Pressure builds quietly.
The strain on frontline workers doesn’t come at once. It builds slowly.
Demand increases. Client needs become more complex. Support takes longer. Staff stretch further. Over time, exhaustion sets in.
When workers leave, it is not a failure of commitment. It is often a sign that the weight has become too heavy to carry alone.
High workforce turnover affects more than rosters. It breaks continuity of care for people seeking help. Clients are asked to retell their story. Trust has to be rebuilt. Progress slows.
Mid Richmond Neighbourhood Centre, NSW (on Bandjalang Country)
Juno, VIC (on Wurundjeri Country)
Small investments, system-level impact.
SmartCare exists because frontline staff need care too, and we can help provide it. In fact, we have done it before through our Sector Capacity campaign.
Through SmartCare, StreetSmart supports grassroots homelessness services to strengthen the wellbeing and stability of their teams. This includes access to supervision, counselling, reflective practice, training, and practical wellbeing initiatives. It also includes flexible funding that recognises the real cost of delivering this work.
These supports aren’t perks. They’re infrastructure.
What services themselves report.
Services funded through SmartCare consistently describe clear and effective flow-on effects to clients and communities. External supervision and wellbeing supports help staff process trauma exposure, reduce burnout risk, and remain engaged in frontline roles, strengthening their ability to continue supporting people in crisis over time.
Imagine having to turn away 1 in 2 women seeking safety, knowing they desperately need help. In fact, 70% of staff report a very high emotional impact of having to turn people away who are seeking support.
Why this matters now.
As demand for homelessness services continues to rise and housing options remain limited, the sector cannot afford preventable workforce loss. Wellbeing supports do not remove pressure, but they increase workers’ capacity to stay, adapt, and continue delivering care under strain. SmartCare works because it intervenes before the weight becomes unsustainable.
At a time when more people need crisis assistance, there are fewer solutions available to staff and a lack of funded capacity. Recent research showed that 83% of services were unable to answer phone calls at times, 74% couldn’t respond to emails and 40% had to close their front doors due to demand.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll share more from frontline workers and services about what it means to carry crisis every day, and how collective support can help lighten the load.
SmartCare is an invitation to stand with the people who show up every day, even when the weight is heavy.
We work collaboratively, and encourage corporates, businesses and philantropists to join us for collective action and impact. Please reach out at partners@streetsmartaustralia.org if this sounds like you.
