About Us

Who we are

The Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH) is an independent champion for preventing and ending homelessness in Australia.

We recognise that the scale of homelessness in Australia is both preventable and solvable and that despite the common misconception to the contrary, we can end homelessness in Australia.

Since 2013, we have supported individuals, organisations, governments, and local communities to work collaboratively to systemically end homelessness.

Specifically, we work to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness by ensuring that everyone has access to the housing and support they need, so that any future incidents of homelessness are rare, brief, and a one-time occurrence. This is how we define an end to homelessness.

Advance to Zero

We seek to demonstrate that ending homelessness is possible in Australia through our Advance to Zero (AtoZ) Campaign, starting with rough sleeping.

Through AtoZ, we support communities to utilise a range of proven solutions including real-time by-name list data, coordinated systems, prevention, improvement science, advocacy, and other activities to ensure that their local housing and homelessness system is able to support more people into permanent housing than are coming into that system – not just at a point in time, but over time.

We measure this by calculating what we call Functional Zero, a dynamic way of determining if a community has been able to make homelessness rare, brief, and a one-time occurrence.

To help guide these efforts to end homelessness, we have developed the Advance to Zero methodology, based on what’s working around the world and what we’ve learned from efforts so far in Australia.

Training And Advisory

Our work is evidence-based and informed by a global network of expertise and knowledge built up by some of the most innovative and successful international efforts to end homelessness. The AAEH itself is modelled on the highly successful National Alliance to End Homelessness in the USA and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.

We work closely with Community Solutions in the US, which, since our inception, have helped to train and coach a range of Australian communities. Community Solutions has coached and supported a growing number of communities in the US and worldwide to achieve Functional Zero homelessness.

We also have partnerships and work closely with a range of other leading international organisations like the Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH), OrgCode (Canada), The Institute of Healthcare Improvement (Various), Crisis (UK), the Corporation for Supportive Housing (USA), and others.

Through what we have learned by working with all of these partners, we offer a range of Training and Advisory Services. This includes our biennial (every two years) Australian Zero Homelessness Summit and Leadership Academy on Ending Homelessness, as well as the development of various data and collaborative tools, resources, and infrastructure to support individual and collective efforts to end homelessness.

Allied Networks

We understand that no single person, organisation, or government can tackle homelessness alone. It requires a collective effort including collaboration, data, and coordinated action across governments, as well as a diverse range of organisations and individuals.

With this in mind, we strive to bring together those who share a commitment to ending homelessness through a series of Allied Networks, which we directly support or work closely with. These networks unite practitioners, policymakers, academics, people with lived experience of homelessness, and leaders from both corporate and community sectors, spanning all industries.

Through these networks, we aim to foster greater collaboration, enhance best practices, and advocate for change. Simultaneously, we work to build an increased understanding of the complex and interconnected causes of homelessness while raising awareness of the fact that we can end it.

Ultimately, the AAEH exists to bring community, business, and government together to inspire action for an end to all homelessness in Australia.

What we stand for

AAEH is committed to preventing and ending homelessness in Australia by ensuring everyone has access to safe, sustainable housing and the services they need. We believe any incidents of homelessness that do occur should be rare, brief and non-recurring.

We understand that access to safe, affordable, appropriate and sustainable housing is not merely about shelter.

The benefits of ending homelessness

Research studies from around the world consistently demonstrate that having access to safe, affordable housing provides a foundation on which individuals and families can build better futures.

Specifically, individuals and families can use the safety, security and stability of housing to:

Exit homelessness
Rise out of poverty
Improve the health of themselves and their family
Reconnect with family where there has been estrangement
Engage in work, study and community participation
Provide a stable home, school and community for children to be a part of
Break the cycle of intergenerational poverty by giving children the chance to thrive.

The benefits of such actions extend far beyond individuals and families to the whole community. Community benefits include reducing the economic impact on Australia’s taxation system by reducing overall spending on health, justice and welfare budgets. By investing funds strategically into evidence-based programs that prevent crisis situations or quickly address them, we can reduce the number of high-cost tertiary level incidents such as emergency room presentations.

Our strategy

Based on evidence from around the world we know the scale of homelessness in Australia is both preventable and solvable.

Housing First is a proven approach that connects people experiencing homelessness with long-term housing as quickly as possible and without preconditions. Work performed by our member organisations around Australia using the Housing First approach has demonstrated that homelessness is not inevitable, that Housing First principles work in the Australian environment, and the work done and successes to date are scalable.

The collaborative, multi-organisation projects completed to date that successfully met and exceeded targets also highlighted that there is excellent impact potential when organisations work together to deliver a coordinated approach to ending homelessness.

Homelessness is solved by providing an adequate supply of safe, appropriate and affordable housing and for those who require it, supportive housing with tenancies that have intentional community services. In some situations, people who experience homelessness will also need ongoing community support to sustain their housing and to access other services they need like health and employment. Resolving homelessness requires a range of responses to meet the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness.

We seek strong, bipartisan, national, state and local political leadership on the issue to ensure homelessness will be solved by a coordinated local effort.

We are committed to working in partnership with local communities to develop effective local responses to homelessness built on robust and well-informed research. We seek strong, bipartisan, national, state and local political leadership on the issue to ensure homelessness will be solved by a coordinated local effort. We need a national agenda that focusses on providing our communities with an adequate supply of affordable housing, one that matches people to the housing and support services they require to access and successfully maintain their tenancy.

Our plan to end homelessness is multi-faceted, reflecting the holistic nature of homelessness, and the collaboration required to prevent and end it.

Our plan includes six distinct but interrelated elements:

Homelessness – prevention and early intervention
National rough sleeper housing and support: Advance to Zero
Increased safe and affordable housing
Increased permanent supportive housing
Essential links between health and housing
Partner to achieve the vision for ending homelessness in Australia.

Working together as a community, with a shared vision we will deliver the foundation on which individuals and families can build better futures.

Click here to review the Partners Guide (PDF)

Our Board/Directors

The Australian Alliance to End Homelessness Board is made up of number of dedicated individuals with expertise in housing and homelessness from around Australia.

Chair: Debra Zanella CEO, Ruah Community Services
(Western Australia)

Karyn Walsh CEO, Micah Projects
(Queensland)

Bevan Warner CEO, Launch Housing
(Victoria)

Tom Dalton CEO, Neami National
(Victoria)

Peter Sandeman Anglican Canon for Social Justice and Director of Strategic Advice, South Australian Housing Authority and Adj Professor Centre for Social Impact, Flinders University (South Australia)