Work towards ending homelessness

Need urgent help with housing?

Call the Homeless Hotline on 1800 474 753 or visit Emergency and temporary accommodation.

Snapshot

  • 20% increase for frontline homelessness services while we review Queensland’s homelessness response
  • Critical response team to all regions
  • Extension of existing short-term temporary accommodation support to individuals and couples
  • More supported accommodation for the regions
  • More housing pathways for young people experiencing homelessness:
    • Supporting young people in community housing
    • Specialist homelessness funding expansion for young people
    • Youth Support Centre

Fierce competition in the rental market and increased cost of living are forcing more Queenslanders out of their homes.

Despite record government investment in social and affordable housing, some Queenslanders still fall through the cracks through no fault of their own. It’s particularly challenging for people who have low income and struggle with complex health challenges, past trauma or family instability. This makes it even more difficult to find and keep a home. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to break out of without help.

Homes for Queenslanders strengthens the safety net we’ve put in place to help Queenslanders avoid homelessness. Last year, we provided $171 million to 90 non-government organisations to provide specialist homelessness services and helped more than 45,000 Queenslanders who were homeless or at imminent risk of losing their housing.

Now we’re ramping up our efforts with more funding for Specialist Homelessness Services, more short-term temporary accommodation in the regions, and more help for First Nations peoples and young people.

Supporting people to find, get and keep a home is important work, and we depend on a dedicated Specialist Homelessness Services workforce to get the job done. So we’re helping them too with more staff and resources.

We want the best for the people of Queensland. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to work towards ending homelessness across the state.

What we're doing

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Funding short-term temporary accommodation and support

We will continue to provide short-term temporary accommodation statewide for people experiencing homelessness through the Immediate Housing Response (IHR) initiative.

Specialist Homelessness Services funded to deliver the IHR can provide short-term temporary accommodation and case management support to households experiencing homelessness where they have no other safe options to sleep.

Case management support includes help to sustain temporary accommodation, alongside proactive assistance to transition to longer-term housing options.

Funding for enhanced outreach and expansion of the Critical Response Team

Brisbane’s highly successful Critical Response Team (CRT) will also be expanded in the regions.

Additionally, Specialist Homelessness Services are being funded to deliver enhanced and after-hours outreach as part of the expansion of the department’s CRT to locations across Queensland, and to support a co-responder model.

This funding is to assist people who are living in unsafe situations such as sleeping rough or in cars, tents and temporary dwellings, and to support them into immediate and appropriate accommodation and other relevant services.

One-stop shop for young people

Young people are often affected by family and life events beyond their control. This can increase their risk of homelessness, affect their health and make it hard for them to navigate the services they need.

We are partnering with Brisbane Youth Service to establish an integrated Youth Support Centre in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. This one-stop shop will provide coordinated support for young people to get help with housing, physical health, mental health, alcohol and drug issues, domestic and family violence, and other related issues.

Ensuring our system works to support the most vulnerable

We want our homelessness responses to be effective and efficient, and help as many people as possible. So we’ve commissioned an independent review to ensure we’re responding to the needs of people experiencing homelessness across Queensland.

Initial findings have been provided in a review update, which includes recommendations for short-term actions to improve homelessness responses ahead of longer-term reforms. The Independent Reviewer will deliver a final report in January 2025.

Reinforcing the front line

We are backing our frontline specialist homelessness services with an immediate 20% funding boost to increase their capacity while we conduct an independent review of the state’s overall homelessness response.

Identified services will also receive more funding to:

  • run after-hours outreach services and employ more workers at night
  • provide more financial assistance and support workers to help people stay in their tenancies and avoid homelessness.
Supportive housing policy

Safe and secure housing is not just about the physical roof over your head – it is also about providing holistic support that address the complex reasons people become homeless.  The Supportive housing policy has been developed in consultation with housing and homelessness services and key sector stakeholders to guide investment into the future.

What's to come

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A better future for young people

Young people are often disadvantaged when they need to access safe and affordable housing because they generally have lower incomes, insecure or part-time employment and less rental history. We want to protect young people who are at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness by:

  • delivering a pipeline of 8 new supported accommodation services for young people experiencing homelessness
  • delivering 8 new youth foyers providing stable housing and support for young people who are studying or working
  • providing extra night workers for identified temporary supported accommodation sites
  • investing in new mobile services to help young people in both their homes and public places find and keep housing.
More temporary supported accommodation in the regions

Access to safe and secure accommodation is critical for personal safety and wellbeing. Temporary supported accommodation can be the safety net that prevents people falling into homelessness.

To put a roof over the head of people in crisis, we will deliver a pipeline of more temporary supported accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. These will add capacity in areas that have demonstrated a real need. They will include a pipeline of 8 sites for young people, 9 sites for families and 20 sites for individuals at risk.