Advance to Zero

Advance to Zero (AtoZ) is a national initiative of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH) that supports local collaborative efforts to end homelessness, starting with rough sleeping – one community at a time.

While Australia is a prosperous country, many people remain trapped in a cycle of homelessness, moving between unstable accommodation, emergency shelters and rough sleeping. This cycle results in chronic homelessness, increased pressure on health and social systems and reduced life expectancy for those affected.

AtoZ exists to help communities break this cycle – not by managing homelessness, but by ending it. Rather than relying on short-term or siloed responses, AtoZ supports communities to fundamentally change the way homelessness is addressed, focusing on long-term, systemic solutions.

AtoZ is a collaboration (or what’s sometimes called a collective impact initiative) between a broad range of communities, organisations and individuals committed to ending homelessness.

It’s a dynamic and evolving initiative, continuously adapting based on real-time learning from communities across Australia and around the world.

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To learn more about the Advance to Zero framework, refer to Homelessness is solvable: How we can end it in Australia (pp. 19-24).


Frequently asked questions

  • + - What are AtoZ communities?

    AtoZ communities (also called Zero Projects) are place-based collaborations working to end homelessness in a defined geographic area – generally a local government area (LGA) or collection of LGAs.

    Each AtoZ community commits to using a data-driven, Housing First approach and shares a common goal of making homelessness rare, brief and once-off – how we define an end to homelessness.

    Learn more about some of the communities we are working with.

  • + - How does AtoZ work?

    AtoZ is characterised by three core components:

    • A common strategy: Everyone working together with a shared strategy to end homelessness.
    • By-name data: Building a real-time, community-wide list of individuals experiencing homelessness to inform decision-making.
    • A Housing First systems change approach: Coordinating services, improving systems and advocating for lasting solutions.

    AtoZ champions community-led efforts to build public and political support for ending homelessness. This includes advocating for renewed investment from federal, state and local governments in the housing, support services, healthcare and coordination efforts needed in each community.

  • + - How can we end homelessness?

    Our strategy (or theory of change) for the framework is based on what has worked to end homelessness overseas, which is to break the process up into smaller, manageable parts.

    We do this by focusing on ending a particular type of homelessness, like rough sleeping, and breaking that up to concentrate on specific groups of people experiencing that type of homelessness, like veterans or families. We refer to these groups as ‘subpopulations’.

    By focusing on this systems change outcome and putting the individual needs of the people experiencing homelessness at the centre of that system, we can end homelessness for good.