Australian Alliance to End Homelessness
The Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH) is an independent champion for preventing and ending homelessness in Australia.
We recognise that the scale of homelessness in Australia is both preventable and solvable and that despite the common misconception to the contrary, we can end homelessness in Australia.
Since 2013, we have supported individuals, organisations, governments and local communities to work collaboratively across sectors to end homelessness – not just at an individual level, but systemically.
Specifically, we work to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness by ensuring that everyone has access to the housing and support they need, so that any future incidents of homelessness are rare, brief and a one-time occurrence. This is how we define an end to homelessness.
Through the Advance to Zero Campaign, our Allied Networks, and our Training and Advisory Services, we support local communities to demonstrate that ending homelessness is possible.
Ultimately, the AAEH exists to bring community, business and government together to inspire action for an end to all homelessness in Australia.
Advance to Zero Campaign
We seek to demonstrate that ending homelessness is possible in Australia through our Advance to Zero (AtoZ) Campaign, starting with rough sleeping.
Through AtoZ we support communities to utilise a range of proven solutions including real-time by-name list data, coordinated systems, prevention, improvement science, advocacy and other activities to ensure that their local housing and homelessness system is able to support more people into permanent housing than are coming into that system – not just at a point in time, but over time.
We measure this by calculating what we call Functional Zero, a dynamic way of determining if a community has been able to make homelessness rare, brief and a one-time occurrence.
To help guide these efforts to end homelessness, we have developed the Advance to Zero methodology, based on what is working around the world and what we’ve learned from efforts so far in Australia.
More information about the Advance to Zero methodology and Campaign can be found here. To learn more or get involved in the AtoZ Campaign, get in touch with us here.
Our strategy
Based on evidence from around the world we know the scale of homelessness in Australia is both preventable and solvable.
Housing First is a proven approach that connects people experiencing homelessness with long-term housing as quickly as possible and without preconditions. Work performed by our member organisations around Australia using the Housing First approach has demonstrated that homelessness is not inevitable, that Housing First principles work in the Australian environment, and the work done and successes to date are scalable.
The collaborative, multi-organisation projects completed to date that successfully met and exceeded targets also highlighted that there is excellent impact potential when organisations work together to deliver a coordinated approach to ending homelessness.
Homelessness is solved by providing an adequate supply of safe, appropriate, and affordable housing and for those who require it, supportive housing with tenancies that have intentional community services. In some situations, people who experience homelessness will also need ongoing community support to sustain their housing and to access other services they need like health and employment. Resolving homelessness requires a range of responses to meet the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness.
We are committed to working in partnership with communities to develop effective local responses to homelessness that are built on robust and well-informed research. We seek strong, bipartisan, national, state, and local political leadership on the issue to ensure homelessness will be solved by a coordinated local effort. We need a national agenda that focuses on providing our communities with an adequate supply of affordable housing, one that matches people to the housing and support services they require to access and successfully maintain their tenancy.
For further information about AAEH, our work, and how you can get involved, please visit our website or reach out by emailing us.