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Call on the Australian Government to count homelessness deaths

Recently, Guardian Australia released an investigative series about the largely invisible deaths of Australians experiencing homelessness. The series, titled ‘Out in the cold’, is the culmination of 12 months of investigation into 627 homeless deaths over a decade.

Various members of the AAEH and A3HN have contributed to the series. A3HN research found that an estimated 424 people died while sleeping rough in Australia in 2020. However, this number is likely to be a significant underestimate because there are no national systems in place to measure data regarding homeless deaths.

The Guardian investigation found that:

Individuals experiencing homelessness are dying on average at the age of 44, a life expectancy gap significantly worse than any other disadvantaged group in the country.
Many of these deaths are preventable and linked to a critical undersupply of housing and support services.
Despite this, the Morrison government ignored a push from the A3HN in 2021 to take even the basic steps of counting homelessness deaths – a measure adopted in the UK and a range of other countries to understand the scale of the problem and formulate policy responses.

Join us in calling on the Australian Government to implement a national homelessness deaths and life expectancy gap reporting framework.

Developing such a framework would make it possible to understand the extent of homeless deaths in Australia and inform how best to address this critical issue.

The invisible deaths of people experiencing homelessness are a tragedy, but future deaths can be prevented if we take action.

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