Specialist Homelessness Services
Specialist Homelessness Services are the primary NSW government response to homelessness and support people who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness.
Homelessness responses
Youth initiatives in housing and homelessness
Learn more about the programs and services available to assist young people at risk of homelessness.
Assertive Outreach
Assertive Outreach is an evidence-based practice to solve street homelessness. Housing staff, specialist caseworkers, and health professionals go on patrols to connect with homeless people and help them find stable, long-term housing.
NSW Housing and Mental Health Agreement
The Housing and Mental Health Agreement 2022 (HMHA 22) between NSW Health and Homes NSW commits them to work together to ensure people with mental illness quickly access safe, secure housing and mental health support, helping them maintain housing, live well, and recover.
No Exits from Government Services into Homelessness
The NSW Government is committed to improving exit planning for people leaving government services such as hospital, out of home care, and correctional facilities by working together across government agencies.
Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places
The Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places helps government, non-government organisations, and private businesses interact with homeless people respectfully, with dignity and without discrimination.
Reintegration Housing Support Program
The Reintegration Housing Support Program helps people leaving custody who are at risk of homelessness.
Sustaining Tenancies in Social Housing
Prevents new cases of homelessness by offering early help to social housing tenants, helping them keep their homes and stay safely housed.
Together Home
The Together Home Program aims to help people sleeping on the streets across NSW find stable housing, with connected wraparound support.
Core and Cluster
The Core and Cluster crisis accommodation model offers private living spaces for people facing domestic and family violence, combining refuge help and services with independent living.
Mental Health-Housing In Reach Service
The Mental Health - Housing In Reach Service (MH-HIRS) links caseworkers with mental health in-patients at risk of homelessness when leaving facilities, helping them find stable housing and support.
NSW Homelessness Strategy 2025-2035
The vision of the draft NSW Homelessness Strategy 2025-2035 is to make NSW a place where homelessness is rare, brief and not repeated because people have a safe home and the support to keep it.
Lived experience advisory groups
The Lived Experience Committee (LEC) aims to ensure that the voices of people experiencing mental ill health who access the social housing and/or homelessness systems are heard by decision makers and service providers, to lead and influence change in services and system.
StreetCare supports people with lived experience of homelessness to be effective advocates to achieve better outcomes for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. StreetCare is managed by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and funded by the Department of Communities and Justice.
Understanding homelessness through data
The Pathways to Homelessness data report is one of the most comprehensive datasets relating to homelessness in Australia.
The NSW Government undertakes annual street counts of people experiencing street homelessness. As well as providing a snapshot of where people are sleeping rough across the state, street counts help foster local collaboration and inform approaches to prevention, housing options and post-crisis support. Find out more about Street Count.
Research and evaluations reports and papers
- Assertive Outreach Pilot Program - ‘No Going Back’ Formative Evaluation - 2021
- Assertive Outreach Pilot Program - Evaluation - 2023
- Cox Inall Ridgeway summary overview 2020
- Cox Inall Ridgeway full report 2020
- Going Home Staying Home Post-Implementation Review - 2015
- Home and Healthy - 2023
- Homelessness Action Plan Projects (HYAP): Analysis of Self Evaluation Reports: Final Report - 2021
- Homelessness Action Plan – summary of evaluation findings
- Homeless Youth Assistance Program (HYAP): Summary report of state-wide consultations - 2015 Homeless Youth Assistance Programs - Evaluation - 2020
- More Than Shelter progress report - 2020
- NSW Homelessness Strategy review by the NSW Audit Office - 2021
- Premier's Youth Initiative (PYI) - Evaluation - 2020
- Reintegration Housing Support Program Pilot - Evaluation - 2023
- Rapid Rehousing - Evaluation 2013
- Sustaining Tenancies in Social Housing and Tenancy Management Pilot - Evaluation - 2023
- SHS Evaluation Report
- Together Home
- Universal Screening and Supports - prevention and early intervention program for youth homelessness
Contact information
Homes NSW
Find out how we can help you find or keep your housing and how to apply for private rental assistance, including Rentstart bond loans.