Homelessness in the ACT is ACT Shelter’s evidence-based briefing on homelessness and housing insecurity in the Territory, released for Homelessness Week 2026. Drawing on the most recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Specialist Homelessness Services Collection and the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services, it sets out who is seeking help and why, how the ACT compares with the rest of Australia, and where the system is under the greatest pressure.
The data paints a picture of a system under sustained strain. While the number of people assisted each year has fallen 25% since 2011–12, clients are staying in the system for far longer (a median of 117 days, more than double the national figure), presenting with markedly higher rates of mental health and other complex needs (71.6%, against 60.0% nationally), and are less likely to be successfully housed or kept out of homelessness than clients anywhere else in the country. Housing affordability stress is now the leading reason Canberrans seek help, cited by 61% of clients, while the ACT continues to record the nation’s highest rate of persistent homelessness (37.7%) and vast over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans (around 10 times the non-Indigenous rate).