More than homes: a tale of 10 cities.
August 8 2023
This new report should be seen as a wake-up call for Australian cities. If we’re not careful, we will end up with the entrenched homelessness problems that exists in cities around the world, which would be shocking.
Homelessness around the world has common causes and the solutions are not just homes – but more houses plus support to keep people housed.
These are the conclusions of Launch Housing, which has released a new global index comparing homelessness among ten OECD cities.
The Capital Cities Homelessness Index compares homelessness in: Auckland, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Dublin, London, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto.
Dublin (1st) is best on four measures of homelessness, and San Francisco (10th) is ranked last. Melbourne came in at equal 6th place with three other cities.
Launch Housing CEO Bevan Warner said that understanding the common causes of homelessness everywhere can help cities deliver better solutions, and avoid slipping further.
“All ten cities in the Index have a homelessness problem. While Australian cities fared comparatively well on most measures, if we don’t aim high with our solutions, we could end up entrenching the type of rough sleeping we see in other cities around the world – a situation that would be shocking and un-Australian.
“Homelessness has structural causes and while personal factors are intertwined, homelessness is not an outcome of individual failure. It occurs where poverty and fewer and fewer housing options collide.
“Of course, more affordable housing is needed to end homelessness, but more homes by themselves will not be enough.
“The experience of London – which has the highest proportion of social housing of all ten cities on the Index, and yet very high rent stress and rates of homelessness – demonstrates that more houses alone are not the answer.
“Australia must build more affordable housing. But without the right prevention and support measures in place, paradoxically, we could end up with more homes and more street homelessness.”
While Melbourne is a world class destination for many, and ranks highly as one of the world’s most livable cities, this doesn’t include measures of rough sleeping and homelessness.
Launch Housing hopes that more awareness of homelessness solutions will inspire action and advocacy for ending street homelessness in Melbourne.
“Through the Melbourne Zero movement, we are asking the community to come together to create the social license for all levels of government to end homelessness.
“We don’t want to end up like cities in the United States that are wealthy and vibrant, but with an entrenched street homelessness problem.”
The Capital Cities Homelessness Index compares homelessness in ten cities based on four measures: the proportion of total dwellings that are social housing; the rate of low-income households in rental stress, the rate of homelessness in a population, and the numbers of people sleeping rough in a population.
Final city rank:
1 Dublin
2 Adelaide
3 Vancouver
3 Sydney
5 London
6 New York
6 Melbourne
6 Toronto
6 Auckland
10 San Francisco
The Index does not include all drivers of homelessness, such as family violence, due to the absence of comparable data.
Launch Housing is powering the Melbourne Zero campaign to end homelessness. The campaign reports on pilot projects to end homelessness at the local level across six Melbourne LGAs. Updates on these “Functional Zero” pilots are available here.
Media contact: Rebecca Nicholson – 0447 964 899
