Contemporary issue: homelessness: HSC Legal Studies

What this dot point is asking

Homelessness is one of the four contemporary issues that must be studied in the Shelter option of the Legal Studies Stage 6 Syllabus (2009). You must identify and investigate the issue and evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to it.

It was examined in 2023, paired with discrimination, and it is a strong choice for any question requiring "at least ONE contemporary issue" (for example 2019 Question 29(b) on law reform). NESA's 2022 feedback noted that homelessness is an area where non-legal responses often do more than legal ones, while its 2023 feedback asked students to focus on legal responses and avoid simply listing statistics. A strong answer does both: it shows what the law does and does not do, and how non-legal responses fill the gap.

The answer

Identifying the issue

What homelessness is. The ABS treats a person as homeless if they lack suitable accommodation alternatives and their current living arrangement is inadequate, has no tenure or only short and non-extendable tenure, or does not give them control of and access to space for social relations. It counts six groups:

1. people in improvised dwellings, tents or sleeping out (rough sleeping);
2. people in supported accommodation for the homeless;
3. people staying temporarily with other households (couch surfing);
4. people living in boarding houses;
5. people in other temporary lodging; and
6. people living in severely crowded dwellings.

The evidence.

• Census 2021: 122,494 people were homeless in Australia (48 per 10,000), and 35,011 in NSW, down from 37,715 in 2016.
• Specialist homelessness services (AIHW, 2024-25): almost 289,000 clients, and around 129,000 unassisted requests (about 350 a day), up from 110,000 the year before; 60 per cent of unassisted requests were for short-term or emergency accommodation, usually unmet because none was available.
• NSW Statewide Street Count (February to March 2026): 2,308 people sleeping rough, up 5 per cent on 2025. Numbers fell in inner-city Sydney (down 15 per cent to 296) and Byron Shire (245) after targeted programs, but rose in Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, the Hunter and the Central Coast.

Causes and groups affected. Unaffordable rents and the shortage of social housing; family and domestic violence, a leading reason women and children seek help; eviction; mental illness and addiction; leaving prison, out-of-home care or hospital without housing; and natural disasters. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, young people, older women and people with disability are over-represented.

Legal responses

1. No enforceable right. Article 11 of the ICESCR recognises a right to adequate housing, but it has not been incorporated into Australian law, so a homeless person cannot compel a government to house them (see the nature of shelter).

2. Funding and national policy.

• The National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness (from 1 July 2024) provides $9.3 billion over five years to the states and doubles Commonwealth homelessness funding, which the states must match.
• Homes for Australia: A National Plan (28 May 2026) lists supporting people experiencing homelessness, crisis and family and domestic violence as one of six priorities.
• Commonwealth Rent Assistance increases (2023, 2024) help people on income support stay housed.

3. NSW law and policy.

• The NSW Homelessness Strategy 2025-2035 aims to make homelessness "rare, brief and not repeated because people have a safe home and the support to keep it". It adopts Housing First as official policy, creates a Street Sleeping Registry so people do not have to retell their story to each service, replaces hotel and motel stays with more suitable accommodation, and builds local collaboration networks, including targeted responses for young people and Aboriginal people.
• Building Homes for NSW ($6.6 billion) funds 8,400 new public homes, prioritising women and children escaping violence, and the $130 million Building Crisis Housing Plan funds crisis accommodation. Programs such as Together Home have housed rough sleepers using Housing First.

4. Prevention through tenancy and family violence law.

• Since 19 May 2025 landlords need a reasonable ground to end a tenancy, reducing evictions into homelessness; notice periods are longer, and portable bonds (statewide from September 2026) lower the cost of moving.
• A tenant escaping domestic violence can end a tenancy immediately with a DV termination notice, and courts can exclude a violent partner from the home through apprehended violence orders, so victims can stay.
• Social housing gives priority to people who are homeless or at risk (see social housing).

5. Laws about public space. How the law treats people who sleep rough affects their dignity and safety:

• Police can give move-on directions under the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW) to people obstructing others or causing harassment or fear; the NSW Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places recognises that homeless people have the same right as others to be in public places, and that officials should approach or move them on only in limited circumstances, such as when their behaviour threatens safety.
• In 2017, after a "tent city" formed in Martin Place, Parliament passed the Sydney Public Reserves (Public Safety) Act 2017 (NSW), giving police power to direct people occupying Martin Place and other declared public reserves to leave and to remove tents and belongings; it passed within about a day and the camp was cleared soon after. Supporters saw it as protecting public safety; critics saw it as moving homeless people on without housing them.
• Work and Development Orders allow people experiencing homelessness to pay off fines through treatment, courses or unpaid work, reducing the way fines can trap people in poverty.

Non-legal responses

• Specialist homelessness services, run by NGOs such as Mission Australia, St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, Wesley Mission and Anglicare (largely funded by government), provide crisis accommodation, case management and support to find and keep housing.
• Advocacy: Homelessness NSW, Shelter NSW and the national Everybody's Home campaign push for more social housing and better funding.
• Community responses: food vans, outreach, street counts conducted with more than 370 local organisations in 2026.
• The media coverage of rough sleeping, older women living in cars and families in tents raises awareness and pressure.

Evaluating the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses

Judgement. Responses to homelessness are effective to a moderate extent. Law reform since 2024, especially doubled homelessness funding, a Housing First strategy and the end of no-grounds evictions, reflects a shift in values from managing homelessness to preventing and ending it, and targeted programs have reduced rough sleeping in some areas. But without an enforceable right to housing and with far too little social and affordable housing, the system still turns away tens of thousands of requests a year, and statewide rough sleeping is rising. As NESA's 2022 feedback suggested, non-legal responses do much of the direct work, but they depend on the legal and funding framework governments create.

In one sentence

Homelessness affects far more people than those sleeping rough, and although funding agreements, a Housing First strategy, tenancy and domestic violence reforms and the work of specialist services and charities help many people, the absence of an enforceable right to housing and a severe shortage of social housing mean the law manages homelessness more than it ends it.

Try this

Q1. Identify TWO causes of homelessness. (2 marks)

• What the marker wants. Two clear causes, such as family and domestic violence and unaffordable housing.

Q2. Explain how law reform has aimed to prevent homelessness in NSW. (6 marks)

• What the marker wants. Two or three reforms (no-grounds evictions, DV termination, the Homelessness Strategy, NASHH) with how they prevent homelessness, and a limit.

Q3. Evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to people sleeping rough. (8 marks)

• What the marker wants. Public space laws and protocols, Housing First programs, services and charities, street count evidence, and a judgement.