Increase in number of high acuity clients with secure housing

The journey out of homelessness is not always linear. Many of our clients require multiple engagements with Launch Housing services and the wider social service system before they find their long-term home. High acuity refers to our clients who often have a history of chronic homelessness with complex needs and require immediate support. 

Our work contributes to the SDGs

People move in and out of housing and other services because of the various dynamics that impact their life, such as the homelessness services system, inadequate public housing, the tight private rental market, and the complex issues clients face in their everyday lives.

Increase in the number of high acuity clients with secure housing.

This year, we assisted 303 high acuity clients with secure housing into Launch Housing owned and/or managed properties. This is a reduction from last year due to a few programs finishing that included properties under our management and clients supported to find alternative accommodation outside of Launch Housing managed stock.

In particular, most of our Homelessness to a Home clients have now moved into their longer-term homes and their head-leased properties, previously managed by Launch Housing, have been handed back to the government. H2H clients moving into long-term homes is a significant and positive outcome given their complex needs. See Impact Measure 2 for more detail.

Number of high acuity clients who were housed last year seeking support this year (also called return clients).

Over the last two years, we assisted 841 high acuity clients into housing. In the past year, 46 of those clients returned to Launch Housing for emergency accommodation, due to unsustained tenancies. Given the vulnerabilities faced by these clients, this low rate of return (5.5%) is an encouraging outcome, demonstrating that our multidisciplinary support is helping more people to sustain their tenancies.

We should note that the number of ‘return clients’ is a likely undercount of the total number of people who may require ongoing support as clients may have sought assistance from other services, not easily tracked across the service system. However, even if the rate were doubled, it is still encouragingly low, as recent research has shown that clients rarely move between service providers.

Looking Ahead

To better understand our impact in this area, we are also creating a consistent record of ‘tenancy ending’ data. This will help us in our service design to ensure we are meeting the needs of people and providing the right supports at the right time.

One of the limitations of this impact measure is that we currently only track new tenancies for clients in Launch Housing owned and managed properties. A decrease in the number of high acuity clients supported is not a negative outcome. It reflects availability within our portfolio of properties which in turn indicates more sustained tenancies.

We will be reviewing and refining this impact measure in future years to track sustained tenancies in our long-term properties more closely and to better align Impact Measure 1 with Impact Measure 3. This will also help us to track positive housing outcomes for clients who have previously been supported by Launch Housing.