Table Of ContentH o m e l e s s n e s s
i n Au s t r A l i A
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H o m e l e s s n e s s
i n A u s t r A l i A
An introduction
Edited by Chris Chamberlain,
Guy Johnson & Catherine Robinson
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A UNSW Press book
Published by
NewSouth Publishing
University of New South Wales Press Ltd
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
AUSTRALIA
newsouthpublishing.com
© Council to Homeless Persons 2014
First published 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book
may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be
addressed to the publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Title: Homelessness in Australia: An introduction / edited by Chris Chamberlain, Guy
Johnson and Catherine Robinson.
ISBN: 9781742234069 (paperback)
9781742241869 (ePub)
9781742247113 (ePDF)
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Homelessness – Australia.
Homeless persons – Australia.
Other Authors/Contributors: Chamberlain, Chris, 1948– editor; Johnson, Guy, editor;
Robinson, Catherine (Catherine Francoise), editor
Dewey Number: 305.50994
Design Josephine Pajor-Markus
Cover design Xou Creative
Cover image Chris O’Brien, The Upside-down House (2011). Copyright Chris O’Brien.
Courtesy Arts Project Australia, Melbourne.
Printer Griffin Press
This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed
forests.
This book is an introductory text on homelessness. A number of named authors’
viewpoints are conveyed in this book, which are not necessarily consistent with the views
of Council to Homeless Persons (CHP). These reflect the diversity of views existing in
relation to issues surrounding homelessness.
An initiative of Council to Homeless Persons
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editors
Professor Chris Chamberlain, Centre for Applied Social Research,
RMIT University.
Dr Guy Johnson, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Applied
Social Research, RMIT University.
Dr Catherine Robinson, Senior Lecturer, School of Communica-
tion, University of Technology Sydney.
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Contents
Contributors vii
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
Chris Chamberlain, Guy Johnson and Catherine Robinson
PART 1: OVERVIEW
1 Homelessness policy: Benign neglect or regulation and
control? 11
Anne Coleman and Rodney Fopp
2 Theorising cause 30
Guy Johnson and Keith Jacobs
3 The dynamics of homelessness 48
Rosanna Scutella and Mark Wooden
PART 2: DEBATES AND ISSUES
4 Definition and counting: Where to now? 71
Chris Chamberlain and David MacKenzie
5 Gender and homelessness 100
Robyn Martin
6 Young people 117
Guy Johnson and Chris Chamberlain
7 Older people 135
Andrew Jones and Maree Petersen
8 Indigenous homelessness 155
Paul Memmott and Daphne Nash
9 Domestic and family violence 179
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Suellen Murray and Jacqui Theobald
10 Complex needs and the justice system 196
Eileen Baldry
11 Trauma: A cause and consequence of homelessness 213
Catherine Robinson
12 Chronic homelessness: A political and moral priority 233
Cameron Parsell
PART 3: POLICY AND THE FUTURE
13 The failure of the housing system 255
Sarah Toohey
14 Reforming the service system 273
Jane Bullen and Felicity Reynolds
Index 293
viii
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Contributors
Eileen Baldry is Professor of Criminology, School of Social
Sciences, University of New South Wales and Deputy Dean,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She teaches criminology and
social policy. Eileen focuses on social and criminal justice relating
to women, Indigenous Australians, people with disabilities; and
homelessness and transitions from prison.
Jane Bullen is a researcher at the Social Policy Research Centre,
University of New South Wales. Jane’s research interests include
homelessness, mental health and young people’s needs. In addi-
tion, Jane has extensive policy, management and service provision
experience relating to homelessness, in particular women’s home-
lessness.
Chris Chamberlain is Professor, Centre for Applied Social
Research, RMIT University. He is the joint author of Youth
Homelessness (1998), Counting the Homeless 2001 (2003) and
Counting the Homeless 2006 (2008).
Anne Coleman is Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology and
Social Work, University of Tasmania. Anne has 20 years of prac-
tice experience as a social worker, which includes direct work,
policy development and research, as well as running a consul-
tancy business. The majority of her work has been on homeless-
ness issues.
Rodney Fopp is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of South
Australia. Rodney has been involved in housing and homelessness
ix
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homelessness in australia
advocacy and research for over 30 years. In addition to numer-
ous consultancies, published articles and conference papers, he
co-authored Homelessness in Australia: Causes and consequences
with Cecily Neil (1992 and 1994).
Keith Jacobs is a Professor of Sociology and an Australian
Research Council Future Fellow based in the School of Social
Sciences, University of Tasmania. He is currently completing a
monograph titled ‘Housing: A post-war history’, to be published
by Reaktion Books.
Guy Johnson is Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Applied
Social Research, RMIT University. He has been involved in the
area of homelessness for almost two decades, initially as a practi-
tioner and now as a researcher. Guy has published extensively on
homelessness and is co-author of On the Outside: Pathways in and
out of homelessness (2008).
Andrew Jones recently retired from his position as a research
professor in the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), Uni-
versity of Queensland (UQ). He was Director of the Australian
Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) UQ Research
Centre from 2002 to 2012 and the research program in housing
and homelessness in ISSR from 2010 to 2012. He was Head of
the School of Social Work and Social Policy at UQ from 2000 to
2003.
David MacKenzie is Associate Professor, Institute for Social
Research, Swinburne University. In 2005, David established
the not-for-profit charity Youth Development Australia and its
Youthworx program. In 2007–08, he led the National Youth
Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness that produced
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