Each year on October 10, World Homeless World Homeless Day raises awareness and support for people experiencing homelessness. Tonight, more than 120,000 people in Australia will experience homelessness. and the number is climbing as the national housing crisis deepens.
At The Lady Musgrave Trust 2025 Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness, researchers, service providers and lived-experience advocates came together to deliver a clear warning: Australia must move beyond reactive, patched crisis responses to coordinated, evidence-backed reform – or generations of women and children will remain locked out of safe, stable housing.
Even within community services, it’s difficult to comprehend the scale of this disaster. Homelessness doesn’t necessarily mean roughsleeping. It can look like living in your car, couchsurfing, or relying on short-term emergency accommodation. For an increasing number of families, it looks like a cramped motel room; a kind of limbo that can last many months. These families rely on the support of overstretched and underfunded services struggling to deliver adequate housing.
Inadequate housing supply and a rapacious private market has meant that low-income Australians are shouldering the brunt of the housing crisis. With more Australians plunged into housing insecurity and an under-resourced sector reeling from record demand and years of budget cuts, there are no shortcuts to secure housing for all.
Forum speakers proposed four key solutions to break the cycle.
1. Deliver a national plan with teeth
Across the sector, providers are keen for the release of the Australian government’s first National Housing and Homelessness Plan. The housing crisis has grown to colossal proportions since the plan was first announced, yet its release has been delayed.
“It is extraordinary to me that we’ve never had a national plan to address housing and homelessness in this country,” said Dr Michael Fotheringham, Managing Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). “There is no silver bullet that will solve our housing crisis. We need to start doing a lot of things differently, and that requires a coordinated, national response. Let’s start there.”
The demand for a national plan rang loud and clear throughout the Forum. Such a plan would need to tackle systemic, intergenerational poverty by setting clearly defined, long-term goals. Models in Canada and Ireland show it can be done, but success in Australia will require buy-in from all levels of government.
“We need a national approach that is measured, monitored and intersectoral, that legislates definitions and targets,” said Fiona Caniglia, CEO of Q Shelter. “Intergenerational poverty is structural, and we need structural reforms to reduce and prevent it.”
Building on that call for systemic change, Corin Moffatt, Co-CEO of the Foyer Foundation, highlighted what it means for young people living with the consequences of intergenerational homelessness. “Fifty per cent of young people that present to homelessness services have had parents who were also experiencing homelessness,” she said.
Corin argued that if Treasury factored that impact into its modelling, “it would be a no-brainer to invest in early intervention programs for young people… Government officials have said we can’t afford to put more into supported housing solutions. If you look at the data and the return on investment, we can’t afford not to.”
Carolyn Curry, Hub Coordinator at MICAH’s Wellspring Children and Families Hub in Hawthorne, joined the call for an overhaul. “The whole service system is so fragmented,” she said. “We need services to be visible and accessible, and so many aren’t.”
2. Scale what works
Across Australia, innovative housing pilots are proving what’s possible when safe homes are combined with wraparound supports. They deliver safety, dignity and stability, yet they remain isolated examples rather than the foundation of the system.
In Cairns, the Mums & Bubs pilot is doing just that – providing young parents and expectant parents with both housing and intensive, culturally-specific wraparound support. Many participants are First Nations, and often arrive with little family support, limited tenancy skills and experiences of domestic and family violence. Since launching in 2022, the program has taken 125 referrals and achieved a 95% success rate. Its success lies in addressing the root causes of homelessness alongside providing a stable home – but like many pilots, it runs on fragile funding that limits its sustainability.
In Melbourne, Viv’s Place offers permanent accommodation for up to 60 women and 200 children escaping domestic violence, with on-site services, safe outdoor spaces and pram-friendly design. The project was developed with input from tenants themselves.
“It’s considering women’s safety and privacy, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and the experience of girls as they grow up,” said Dr Kate Raynor, Director of the Centre for Equitable Housing at Per Capita Victoria.
The Lady Musgrave Trust’s Jinndii Waijung development in Logan has been described as the “gold standard” of family-first housing. Delivered in partnership with the Queensland Government, the Property Industry Foundation and generous corporate and community partners, this initiative incorporates practical features such as bathtubs for young children, private play areas and layouts designed for safety and privacy. Onsite support is also available to tenants to assist with goal setting and skill development.
“These services are working, but they’re still the exception, not the norm,” said Laura Mahoney, Acting CEO of Launch Housing Victoria.
Applying a gender lens is critical, Dr Raynor added. “People experience the outcomes of programs in different ways depending on factors like gender. Applying a gender lens improves the impact and the targeting of support programs. It’s better market segmentation.”
These pilots succeed because they integrate housing with other supports, from healthcare and childcare to counselling and education. Youth-specific models, such as the Foyer Foundation, show similar success by combining housing with education and employment pathways.
But the government remains cautious to invest. Many of these programs have survived only because philanthropy was willing to take the first risk. “Philanthropy lets us try what works, then de-risk and scale,” said Victoria Parker, CEO of The Lady Musgrave Trust.
Such programs have proven that integrated housing and support models work. The solution to homelessness is already here, but it is diluted. Lasting change will take the commitment to move from scattered pilots to a nationwide program that can transform outcomes for thousands of women, children and young people.
3. Put education at the centre
Forum speakers reframed education as a frontline tool for preventing homelessness. Trauma-aware, flexible and wraparound schooling can interrupt cycles of disadvantage before they harden into lifelong patterns.
QUT’s Dr Lyra L’Estrange explained the neuroscience: adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as exposure to violence, neglect or housing instability, can derail a child’s ability to learn unless schools are designed to buffer stress. “An ACE score isn’t destiny,” Dr L’Estrange said. “With the right support at the right time, we can disrupt the cycle of disadvantage.”
Across Queensland, examples show what this looks like in practice. The Bryan Foundation’s FamilyLinQ at Kingston and Carimbia, a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Department of Education, brings health, family support and early learning services onto school campuses so families don’t have to navigate fragmented systems.
Special assistance schools like Y Schools use flexible timetables, youth worker check-ins and individual learning plans to keep students engaged.
And for the 535 children living in motels, including 380 under-fives, Micah Projects brings the playground to them. Micah’s motel outreach playgroups provide valuable enrichment and structure, and allow parents to attend court hearings and medical appointments.
“It only takes one person, one service and one conversation to change the course of a young person’s life,” said youth worker Caitlin.
4. Build family-first housing, not one-size-fits-all
Nearly 500 families in Brisbane are experiencing homelessness right now, according to data collected by Brisbane Zero. Most are living in cramped motels, and nearly half have more than two children. Some families have been on waitlists for more than 18 months.
“There just isn’t stock housing available for women with more than two children,” said Paulina Tapia, Coordinator at Brisbane Zero.
The shortage of larger, family-appropriate housing leaves motels filling the gap, even though they cannot provide the safety or stability children need.
“Last year, we supported 230 families who lived in motels for three months or more,” said Laura. “That’s not a sustainable or safe environment for children. What if we decided to design homes and communities specifically for families?”
Building three- and four-bedroom apartments is one step. More family-sized housing could help hundreds of families out of motels, but it’s only part of the puzzle.
“Yes, we need more social housing,” Paulina acknowledged, “but we also need to embed different models of supportive housing within the system.”
The Forum made it clear that ending homelessness for women and children is not a mystery. The solutions are already in front of us – national targets, housing models that put families first, trauma-aware schools that buffer disadvantage, and homes designed for women and children with wraparound supports.
The question is not whether we can end this crisis, but whether governments and communities will act with the urgency it demands to give every child the chance to grow up in a safe, stable home.
The evidence is growing. What’s missing is the will.
