Definitions of Homelessness
There are three key segments of the homeless population.* The defining features of each level of homelessness are:
Primary Homelessness (absolute)
People without conventional accommodation, such as people living on the streets, sleeping in parks, squatting in derelict buildings, or using cars or railway carriages for temporary shelter.
Secondary Homelessness (relative)
People who move frequently from one form of temporary shelter to another. It covers: people using emergency accommodation (such as hostels for the homeless or night shelters); teenagers staying in youth refuges; women and children escaping domestic violence (staying in women's refuges); people residing temporarily with other families (because they have no accommodation on their own); and those using boarding houses on an occasional or intermittent basis.
Tertiary Homelessness (relative)
People who live in boarding house on a medium to long-term basis. Residents of private boarding house do not have a separate bedroom and living room; they do not have kitchen and bathroom facilities of their own; their accommodation is not self-contained; and they do not have security of tenure provided by a lease.
*Developed by Chamberlain and Mackenzie (1992), as used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
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