Prevention and early intervention

There are many critical points along the pathway to homelessness. We will target supports at these points to help prevent people from experiencing homelessness.

We will:

• identify people who are at risk of homelessness early, particularly young people, by expanding universal screening in schools. We will begin by trialling this in areas of high disadvantage through our Universal Screening and Supports Pilot.
• support people to maintain their tenancies both in social housing or the private rental market. We will respond to warning signs that people’s tenancies may be at risk, and connect them to support and assistance that will help them remain in their homes. We will work closely with real estate agencies, and deliver support to address complex needs such as mental health and other drug issues for people living in social housing.
• improve ‘exit planning’ for people leaving government services such as hospitals, out-of-home care and correctional facilities by working closely with other government agencies in the implementation of the No Exits from Government Services into Homelessness: A framework for multi-agency action 2020.
• support research and analysis to improve the evidence base for homelessness prevention and early intervention. This includes the Pathways to Homelessness report, which analyses a major linked dataset to identify the key risk factors, service use, and costs across government for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.