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This is the first of three 91���� Briefs that examines Census data to understand how homelessness is changing in Australia. The 2016 Census reveals that 116,427 people were experiencing homelessness in August 2016, which was a 13.7 per cent increase, or an additional 13,988 people, to the 2011 Census. Over the same time period Australia’s population rose by a smaller 8.8 per cent, from 21,507,717 people in 2011 to 23,401,892 in 2016.

Across the categories of homelessness, rough sleeping often receives the most most media attention due to its public and confronting nature. Sleeping rough is defined by the ABS as living in improvised dwellings, tents, or sleeping out. As a category of homelessness, it recorded the second largest increase in the 2016 Census (after people in severely overcrowded housing).

Looking at the categories of homelessness in NSW from 2011–16, we find the largest increase of 72.4 per cent was for those living in 'severely' crowded dwellings, from 9,655 people in 2011 to 16,821—an increase of 7,166. The ABS defines a severely overcrowded home as needing four or more extra bedrooms to house the occupants of the dwelling.

In the context of Australia’s ageing population and increasingly unaffordable housing, government policies assume older householders would be best to downsize into smaller homes as this would make more efficient use of Australia’s housing stock and improve housing affordability issues.

Australia’s banks have invested around $1.5 billion dollars in social impact investment projects for community housing providers, however there are significant barriers to expanding social impact investments, 91���� research has found.