Our Progress

Progress Dashboard

The Adelaide Zero Project Dashboard tracks our progress towards achieving and sustaining Functional Zero street homelessness in the inner city. This data will initially be updated monthly, but is intended to be updated in as close to real time as possible.

For more information on Functional Zero, please watch this video.

Active Homelessness in Adelaide’s inner city
A graph showing active homelessness in the Adelaide inner city since May 2018. The total number of people actively experiencing homelessness in February 2023 was 204.
  1. The Adelaide Zero Project By-Name List classifies a person’s homelessness status as either Inactive (not currently engaged with services), Not Homeless (known to be housed), or Actively Homeless (currently known to services to be homeless).
  2. Tracking Active Homelessness is a key metric of the Adelaide Zero Project and allows services to monitor progress toward Functional Zero homelessness in the inner city.
  3. Functional Zero homelessness is achieved when the number of people who are, or were, sleeping rough in the inner city is no greater than the six month average housing placement rate.
  4. A person may be recorded as Actively Homeless if they are Newly Identified by the homelessness system, Returned from Inactive (after system reengagement), or Returned from Housing (after previously being housed by the Adelaide Zero Project).
  5. Since August 2020, the Adelaide Zero Project has classified Active Homelessness into three categories.
    1. People who are known to be sleeping rough (by inner city services).
    2. People who are temporarily sheltered (known by services to be sheltered, after previously known to be sleeping rough).
    3. People who are actively homeless – other (known by services to have previously been temporarily sheltered, but with current circumstances unknown). In the graph above, this category has been incorporated with the known to be sleeping rough category.
  6. The Adelaide Zero Project is committed to transparency and accountability in reporting this data monthly (see dashboard below).
  7. In January 2023, the Adelaide Zero Project undertook a Quarterly audit to ensure that the By Name List continued to reflect the prevalence of Rough Sleeping homelessness in the inner city. This included reviewing By Name List records where no engagement activity had been recorded with services in the previous 90-day period and cross-checking other systems available to inner city services.
  8. Where other systems indicated a person continuing to experience Rough Sleeping homelessness in the inner city, the By Name List was updated to reflect this information.
Functional Zero Data for the Current Month
General context about Adelaide Zero Project data from 1 July 2021
  • From 1 July 2021, the Toward Home Alliance became responsible for delivering homelessness services in Adelaide’s inner-city.
  • The Regional Administrator (data custodian) for Adelaide Zero Project’s By-Name List also transitioned from Neami National to The Salvation Army from 1 July 2021, to align with the new Toward Home Alliance service.
  • During this transition, services had limited access to the By-Name List. To maintain data quality and ensure client information was up-to-date, the By-Name List was cross-checked with other data sources.
  • The Regional Administrator and the Adelaide Zero Project Backbone team continue to assess and undertake data quality activities as required.

1‘Housed’ refers to people on the By-Name List who have been offered and allocated housing

2 The Adelaide Zero Project is committed to maintaining an accurate and up-to-date ‘real time By Name List’ – one of eight key activities underpinning Advance to Zero methodology. An accurate By Name List captures the scale and nature of homelessness in an area and enables communities to set goals and plan activities to reduce homelessness. A real time By Name List also allows communities to measure progress towards ending homelessness.

The inactive figure indicates the number of people who have not been in touch with the homelessness system for 90 days. This could be for many reasons including hospitalisation, moving out of Adelaide or the individual has obtained housing independently. 

As of 30 April 2020, data is being reported at the end of the calendar month, rather than on the 18th of each month.

This graph shows the number of people known to be sleeping rough in the inner city each month. This data is from the By-name List, which was established 18 May 2018 (Connections Week) and is used to track progress on the Dashboard above (launched August 2018).

Click on the images below to see a larger version.

A graph displaying the number of people on Adelaide's Zero Project's By-Name List.

People sleeping rough in the city from June 2007 to May 2018 (Connections Week):

A graph displaying the number of people rough sleeping in Adelaide's inner city.

The dashed vertical line (yellow) marks Adelaide’s first Connections Week and baseline data for the Adelaide Zero Project. Figures from June 2007 – September 2017 are Inner City Rough Sleeper Street Counts (Source: Housing SA). Fewer people were approached during the Street Count in September 2017 (136 people) than in May 2017 (225 people). Given the lower numbers of people approached to participate in the September 2017 Street Count, the apparent reduction in people sleeping rough at that time should be interpreted with caution. The vertical lines in May 2011 and February 2013 also reflect methodology changes to the Inner City Street Count.

The Adelaide Zero Project has developed guidelines for requesting de-identified or identifiable data. Please read the relevant guidelines before submitting a request through the Adelaide Zero Project Data Request Form.

Please contact the Adelaide Zero Project Team if you have any questions or require help completing the form.

De-identified data usage and request guidelines: Download here

The Adelaide Zero Project Dashboard tracks our progress towards achieving and sustaining Functional Zero street homelessness in the inner city.

Adelaide Zero Project aims to reach Functional Zero for people who are either:

  • currently sleeping rough
  • were sleeping rough, but are now temporarily sheltered.

Functional Zero street homelessness is achieved when the number of people who are, or were, sleeping rough in the inner city is no greater than the housing available in that month, and this can be consistently proven with data. This dashboard is our way of proving that.

In Adelaide’s first Connections Week (May 2018), 200 trained volunteers identified 143 people who were sleeping rough in the City of Adelaide. This information was used to create a By-Name List to help inner city homelessness services to know the names and needs of those sleeping rough.

Homelessness is a dynamic issue and situations can change daily for people who are experiencing this. Functional Zero is a dynamic measure of this complex issue. As the Adelaide Zero Project progresses and our homelessness system improves, we expect these numbers to rise and fall until the system successfully sustains Functional Zero street homelessness.

The development of the Adelaide Zero Project Dashboard is a collective effort of over 40 organisations. Connections Week was led by Hutt St Centre and the By-Name List establishment has been led by Neami National. The dashboard has been made possible thanks to the support of the Broadley Trust.

Adelaide Zero Project and its Partners responded to the COVID-19 pandemic at all levels of the inner-city homelessness system through:

  • establishing an Adelaide Zero Project COVID-19 Response Team incorporating representatives from health, homelessness services, emergency shelter and housing providers, and government authorities
  • using the Adelaide Zero Project By-Name List and collaborative governance structures to quickly implement multi-agency responses
  • increasing the frequency of Adelaide Zero Project’s care coordination meetings to ensure the most vulnerable people are being supported faster.The SA Housing Authority provided the COVID-19 Emergency Accommodation for Rough Sleepers Coordinated Health Response, to support people experiencing homelessness to maintain social distancing measures. This means that many people on the By-Name List who were sleeping rough in the inner city were temporarily sheltered during COVID-19.Homelessness is a dynamic issue and situations can change daily. Despite recent challenges in responding to COVID-19, Adelaide Zero Project partners remain committed to achieving Functional Zero and ensuring long-term solutions for people currently experiencing homelessness in our city.Adelaide Zero Project’s Collective Impact approach and unique data is already enabling better responses in these unprecedented times.