Preventing homelessness: adapting a public health model

This paper explores the application of a public health prevention continuum to better understand opportunities for preventing homelessness through identifying its root causes. The paper is intended as a thought leadership piece to stimulate discussion and debate within the homelessness and housing sectors. It is intended to support initiatives focusing on ending homelessness, such as the Adelaide Zero Project, by conceptualising what types of approaches may be required to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness. A housing prevention continuum, which attempts to document the major factors influencing housing outcomes across the entire housing continuum, is presented. This captures the range of structural and systemic changes that may be required to effectively improve the prevention of homelessness. The paper reflects the parallels between the housing/homelessness and health systems, particularly when working towards a strengthened focus on primary prevention and systemic factors that go beyond traditional attention to crisis responses and individual factors.