Our Progress

Progress Dashboard

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

Since 2018, the Adelaide Zero Project has remained committed to transparency and accountability in reporting monthly data. See below for the latest data.

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.

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 homeless in August 2023 was 222.

  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. A person may be recorded as Actively Homeless if they are Newly Identified by the homelessness system, Returned from Inactive (after service re-engagement), or Returned from Housing (after previously being housed by the Adelaide Zero Project).

  4. 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.

  5. As of May 2023, the Adelaide Zero Project has implemented a monthly auditing process to ensure the By Name List is an accurate reflection of the prevalence of street homelessness in Adelaide’s inner city. This included reviewing By Name List records where no engagement activity had been recorded with services in the previous 90-day period.

  6. In July 2022, the Adelaide Zero Project re-certified as achieving Data Quality. An Active Homelessness median (in green) has been included in the above graph, allowing the Adelaide Zero Project to track any system changes or shifts in the prevalence of homelessness across this period.

Functional Zero Data for the Current Month

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.

  • 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.
  • The Regional Administrator and the Adelaide Zero Project Backbone team continue to assess and undertake data quality activities as required.

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.

 

Access to live data through the Advance to Zero database

 

Some members of Adelaide Zero Project partner organisations have access to the live Advance to Zero database and By-Name List data. Partner organisations with such access can, without further approval, use and report on data specific to the service they work within. 

 

Where partner organisations wish to use comparative data related to other services, they must:

  • contact the Inner City Sub Committee representative of the other service for approval, if the comparison isn’t across the entire project; and
  • follow the data request process, including completing an Adelaide Zero Project Data Request Form, noting if the Member intends to extract the data themselves.

 

Collective participating organisations such as Homelessness Alliances may extract comparative data relative to their structure, provided this does not include other Lead Organisations outside of the Alliance. BNL data cannot be used for contract management purposes, where for example, an Alliance may sub-contract a service to another provider who is not an Alliance member.

 

All partner organisations using live By-Name List data through the Advance to Zero platform must be sensitive in their use of such data, ensuring consistency with the Adelaide Zero Project’s objectives, interpretation and presentation of data and its ethical use.

 

Research partner organisations must complete an Adelaide Zero Project Data Request Form for each project for which they require By-Name List data.

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.

 

De-identified data: requesting, approving and provision of data

 

An Adelaide Zero Project Data Request form must be completed for any use of By-Name List data not publicly available, for example specific data for research or demographic data included in Monthly By-Name List reports (marked internal use only).

 

Priority will be given to key organisations for release of de identified data. Priority will be determined by the Data Custodian and nominated person(s) from the Adelaide Zero Project Data and Evaluation Working Group. Requests from the following people or groups will be the highest priority:

  • The Inner City Sub Committee
  • Minister for Human Services
  • City of Adelaide Lord Mayor
  • Individuals or organisations demonstrating an urgent or pressing need for data, for example for research projects endorsed by the Inner City Sub Committee.

 

The Data and Evaluation Working Group meets in the first week of each month. Data requests received before the end of each month will be reviewed at the next meeting.

 

The Adelaide Zero Project Data and Evaluation Working Group, including representatives from the Data Custodian, will grant approval if:

  • the request fits within the current consent provided by people on the By-Name List,
  • and offers benefit to the people and systems who are represented by the data
  • the data will not compromise the Adelaide Zero Project if released
  • the use, interpretation and presentation of the data is consistent with the vision and activities of the Adelaide Zero Project
  • requested data is extractable within a reasonable timeframe
  • ethical matters have been considered by the requestor and Adelaide Zero Project, i.e. there is low potential for identification of individuals through release of data and the data use is consistent with the consents obtained.

 

Where the data request is granted, any data provided will also made available to all Adelaide Zero Project Partners on request.

 

Where a data request is declined, the requesting party will be provided with the reason(s) for the declined request and the declined request logged internally.

 

Members of the Data and Evaluation Working Group will provide the data to the person requesting it. Data will not include any analysis or commentary, with the exception of some data caveats/explanations where applicable.

 

In certain circumstances, the person requesting the data may need to consult with the Adelaide Zero Project before using the data or findings with stakeholders or members of the public. Data requestors will be notified of their need to fulfil this requirement as part of the request process. In these situations, a copy of the data use or findings must be supplied to the Data and Evaluation Working Group.

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.

 

Identified data: requesting, approving and provision of data

 

Identifiable data may include any combination of the below:

  • Names, including first names, last names, aliases
  • Date of birth
  • Data provided on an individual, rather than for a summary or cohort, for example a list of status changes and By-Name List history, which could be used to identify an individual intentionally or otherwise
  • Data that identifies a very small number of people, for example analysis of remote visitors from a specific community.

 

By-Name List person identifiers are not considered identifiable data. Where possible, Centrelink Reference Numbers or H2H identifiers should be used for data matching instead of identifiable data. Data matching or linking must take place in accordance with the lawful release of data for research and analysis through the Privacy Act, 1988 (Cth) or other legislation e.g. SA NT DataLink. 

 

Reasons for requesting identifiable data may include:

  • Data matching processes to support finding appropriate housing, healthcare and community services according to the individual’s circumstances and the consent processes under which By-Name list data is collected
  • Assessing eligibility for services.

 

To request identifiable data, complete the Adelaide Zero Project Data Request Form.

 

The Adelaide Zero Project Data and Evaluation Working Group, including representatives from the Data Custodian, will grant approval if:

  • the request fits within the current consent provided by people on the By-Name List and offers benefit to the people and systems who are represented by the data
  • the requestor is from an Adelaide Zero Project partner organisation, unless the information is being shared because the Adelaide Zero Project believes there is a serious or imminent risk to an individuals’ safety or the safety of another person, or where required by law
  • the data will not compromise the Adelaide Zero Project if released the use, interpretation and presentation of the data is consistent with the vision and activities of the Adelaide Zero Project
  • requested data is extractable within a reasonable timeframe
  • ethical matters have been considered by the requestor and Adelaide Zero Project, i.e. the data use is consistent with the consents obtained
  • the requestor agrees to meet any conditions placed on the data release as part of the identified data request process.

 

Priority will be determined by the Data Custodian and/or the nominated person(s) from the Adelaide Zero Project Data and Evaluation Working Group. Requests may be deemed high priority if they are associated with any of the below:

  • Inner City Sub Committee
  • Minister for Human Services
  • City of Adelaide Lord Mayor
  • Individuals or organisations demonstrating an urgent or pressing need for data in support of an emergency response, for example pandemic, natural disaster, civil unrest.

 

The Data and Evaluation Working Group usually meets during the first week of each month. During each meeting, members will assess requests that are submitted before the end of each month, and are determined to have either:

  • low priority
  • high priority, but the data is not required before the meeting date.

 

Where a request is determined to have high priority and the data is required before the next Data and Evaluation Working Group meeting, the relevant Data and Evaluation Working Group member must seek endorsement from the Data Custodian and the Chair or Co-Chairs of the following groups, if appropriate, before providing the data:

  • Chairs - Inner City Sub Committee
  • Data and Evaluation Working Group

 

Where it is not possible to get the endorsement of the Committee or Group chairs, the Data Custodian has the authority to provide the requested data in line with this guideline. The Data Custodian must inform the Committee and Group Chairs as soon as possible.

 

Where a data request is declined, the requesting party will be provided with the reason(s) for the declined request and the declined request logged internally.

 

Members of the Data and Evaluation Working Group will provide the data to the person requesting it. Data will not include any analysis or commentary, with the exception of some data caveats/explanations where applicable.

 

The Member extracting the data request will:

  • extract only the necessary information from the Advance to Zero database
  • use Excel to compile the necessary information
  • encrypt the Excel file with a password
  • send the Excel file and password separately, for example in two different emails.

 

The email with the Excel file should include the paragraph below, along with any other conditions of the release:

The data attached is sensitive and confidential and has been provided for [insert reasons for data request] in line with the Adelaide Zero Project consent. This dataset cannot be used beyond the aforementioned purpose or distributed beyond the people included in this email without permission.

 

Where appropriate, also add the following information:

Any copies of the data must be deleted or destroyed within XX days/weeks/months of this email.

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.

This graph shows the number of people sleeping rough in the city from June 2007 to May 2018 (Connections Week).

This graph shows the numbers of people sleeping rough in the inner city of Adelaide between June 2007 and August 2018. June 2007 was 108, August 2007 had 93, August 2008 had 59, August 2009 had 40, August 2010 had 73, May 2014 had 95, August 2015 had 60, August 2016 had 125, September 2017 had 74, May 2018 had 143, and August 2018 had 148.

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.