Frequently asked questions

• + - How does AtoZ work?

  The AAEH supports communities participating in AtoZ through a series of six-monthly improvement cycles, where communities work together, build capacity and share knowledge, tools and resources.

  AtoZ is supported by a series of Allied Networks focused on particular sectors like health, business or veterans, and large-scale change efforts across cities, regions or states and territories.

  With our international and domestic partners, the AAEH provides training, coaching and other infrastructure or tools-based support through these improvement cycles.

• + - Who is involved in AtoZ?

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

  'Communities' are generally defined as a local government area or collection of local government areas.

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

• + - 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.

• + - What does functional zero mean?

  Functional zero measures whether a community has ended homelessness for a population. It is reached when a community can demonstrate that their system is routinely housing more people than are coming into it, and has sustained that state for a period of time, thereby ensuring that homelessness is rare, brief and once-off.