Australia’s compliance with the ICESCR
Fact Sheet: Homelessness in Australia
The rights of homeless people in Australia are not sufficiently protected to ensure compliance with the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Homelessness as a Human Rights Issue
At least 105,000 people across Australia are homeless every night. 1 The incidence of homelessness has
increased over the last decade, despite a sustained period of economic growth and prosperity. People
experiencing homelessness are subject to multiple and intersectional human rights violations.
The causes of homelessness in Australia are complex and varied. However, they are generally
acknowledged to include poverty, severe financial hardship and lack of access to adequate income support,
unemployment, lack of affordable housing, domestic and family violence, mental illness, lack of access to
health care, drug and alcohol disorders, lack of access to drug treatment services, problem gambling,
discrimination, disability and evictions.2 In many cases of homelessness, these causes are intersectional
and inter-related.
In December 2008, the Australian Government released a White Paper on homelessness. The paper, The
Road Home, sets out an action plan to halve homelessness by 2020 and improve housing affordability for
vulnerable Australians. The White Paper commits the Australian Government to provide $800 million over
five years to fund a range of initiatives, including new housing for homeless individuals and families.
Despite these significant commitments, the White Paper fails to explicitly recognise homelessness as a
human rights issue. In particular, it does not commit Australia to ensure the core minimum necessities to
ensure that people have the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity, such as guaranteed
access to emergency accommodation and adequate housing or the payment of social security or income
support above the poverty line.
Homelessness and Discrimination
Discrimination against people who are homeless is widespread in all Australian jurisdictions. 3 Discrimination
is a major causal factor of homelessness and can systematically exclude people from access to goods,
services, the justice system, health care, housing and employment. Despite this, it remains lawful to
discriminate against people on the basis of their housing status in all Australian jurisdictions.
In 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing recommended that Australian
governments take proactive measures, including changing legislation, to address discrimination on the basis
of inadequate housing and other forms of social status. 4
Indigenous people are over-represented in all sections of the homeless population. 5
Funding of Housing Programmes
The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) provides financial assistance for supported
accommodation and related support services to people who are temporarily or permanently homeless. This
is the Government’s primary response to homelessness in Australia. The number of people receiving
substantial support from the SAAP is increasing. In 2007-08, 1 in every 104 Australians, or 202,500 people,
received substantial support from SAAP.6
1
In order to simply sustain the service, SAAP requires an increase in funding of 15 per cent, and a 40 per cent
increase is required for the service to meet its demand. Despite this, both overall funding and direct funding
to SAAP agencies increased just 1% from 2006-07 to 2007-08. This is clearly inadequate.
Health Outcomes for Homeless People
Poor health has been demonstrated to be a contributor to and consequence of homelessness. 7 While
homelessness exacerbates and complicates the treatment of many health problems, some health problems
are consequences of homelessness.8 Identified barriers to adequate health care for people experiencing
homelessness include, among others, financial barriers, lack of transportation to medical facilities, competing
needs where basic subsistence needs in relation to food, accommodation and income take precedence over
health care, and lack of health insurance.9
Improving health outcomes for homeless people requires specifically targeted health care services, delivered
together with programs to address underlying causes of homelessness. 10 The White Paper proposes that
housing services be complemented with ‘wrap-around support that addresses’ people’s complex needs,
including health services.11 Despite these significant commitments, the White Paper fails to explicitly
recognise homelessness as a human rights issue or commit Australia to ensure the core minimum
necessities for a dignified life.
TABLE OF CROSS-REFERENCES
Issue
Homelessness as a Human Rights Issue
Covenant Rights
2, 11, 12
References to Issue in NGO Submissions
FREDA NGO Report Parts M.2 (pages 94-97)
FREDA Addendum Part M.2 (pages 52-55)
Non-discrimination
2
FREDA NGO Report Part C.4 (pages 35-36)
Funding of housing programmes
11
FREDA NGO Report Parts M.3, M.4, M.5, M.6 (pages 97101)
FREDA Addendum Part M.3 (pages 55-56)
Health Outcomes for Homeless People
12
FREDA NGO Report Parts N.6 (pages 123-124)
FREDA Addendum Part N.6 (pages 69-70)
Endnotes
1
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counting the Homeless, 2006 (2008)
2
Ibid. Also see generally; Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Parliament of Australia, A Hand Up Not a Hand
Out: Renewing the Fight against Poverty (2004).
See, eg, research conducted by the Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic, Public Interest Clearing House, Submission to the
Human Rights Committee, Homelessness and Human Rights in Victoria (2005); Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission, Homelessness is a Human Rights Issue (2008) 3, available at
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/housing/homelessness_2008.html
3
4
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing as
a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living: Mission to Australia, 4th sess, Prov Agenda Item 2, UN Doc
A/HRC/4/18/Add.2 (2007) Recommendation 130.
5
Overall, 2.4 per cent of people identified as Indigenous at the 2006 Census, but 9 per cent of the homeless were Indigenous.
6
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Homeless People in SAAP: National Data Collection Annual Report (2009), vii.
7
Adrienne Lucy, ‘South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service Homelessness Health Strategic Plan 2004–09’ (2004) 17(8) Parity
8
Institute of Medicine (US), Homelessness, Health and Human Needs (1998) 39.
9
L Gelberg et al, Health, Homelessness and Poverty: A Study of Clinic Users (1996) 2325–30; National Mental Health Working
Group, Homelessness and Mental Illness: Bridging the Gap — Discussion Paper (2003) 5; Margaret Eberle et al,
Homelessness: Causes and Effects — A Review of the Literature (2001) 16–17.
Paula Braveman and Sofia Gruskin, ‘Poverty, Equity, Human Rights and Health’ (2003) 81(7) Bulletin of the World Health
Organization 539, 540.
10
11
Ibid.
2