Homelessness Service Usage Patterns of 30,000 Homeless and At‐Risk Households: The Melbourne Access Point Study

ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, overseas researchers have utilised administrative data to identify distinct patterns in shelter use. In Australia, the use of administrative data to understand service utilisation patterns among people ‘at risk’ of homelessness and experiencing homelessness is limited. A small number of Australian studies suggest that there are different patterns of service use. However, these studies are either drawn from single sites or utilise limited timeframes, and they are not strictly comparable with international studies as there is no equivalent to shelters in Australia. What remains unclear is whether service use patterns are agency‐specific or exist at a systems level, and the relationship between household characteristics and service utilisation. This paper fills this gap using a novel subset of an administrative dataset of 70,000 unique households that presented to six Initial Assessment and Planning services in metropolitan Melbourne between 2014 and 2020. Our findings suggest three distinct patterns of service use (light, periodic, and regular) and while we find no gender differences between the three clusters, regular users are younger and more likely to have a range of disabling conditions than light and periodic users. The paper concludes with implications for policy and practice.