We have known for years now that the fastest growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness are middle aged women, however, frightening data from the 2021 Australian census also shows that females accounted for 81.7% of the 6,067 increase of people experiencing homelessness in 2021.81.7% of the increase are women! That is absolutely appalling.
More and more women are experiencing homelessness because services simply cannot keep up with demand. Domestic violence and intimate partner abuse rates are climbing and very little is being done to address this national crisis.
The rate of homelessness for males decreased in 2021 to 55 males per 10,000 (from 58 in 2016), while the rate for females increased in 2021 to 42 females per 10,000 (from 41 in 2016).
The data for the 2021 census was taken during the middle of the pandemic lockdown in many places. Although some adjustments have been made to recalculate true statistics, the way we are now collecting and reporting data on homelessness has in itself changed.
So we still don’t have complete accurate statistics.
(Source: Census of Population and Housing 2006, 2011, 2016, 2021.)
