Glossary: Key Terms in Homelessness Support

When learning about homelessness and engaging with support services, you'll encounter specific terms and phrases. Understanding this language helps you navigate conversations with service providers, understand research and policy, and better support people experiencing homelessness.

People and Roles

Case Managers

(May also be called case workers or youth workers)

Case managers are professionals who help people in difficult situations navigate through problems such as housing, employment, or health. They may help in planning, connecting to resources, or advocating on their behalf.

Case managers also work in hospitals, clinics, and other institutions, and are not unique to social work. They provide ongoing support and help people access the services they need.

Intake Assessment Worker

A professional who conducts initial assessments at Homelessness Access Points to determine what support and services someone needs. They're often the first point of contact when someone seeks help.

Terms for People Receiving Support

Different organisations may refer to people experiencing homelessness using various terms:

Client - most common in government and formal services
Participant - emphasises active involvement in programmes
Consumer - increasingly used to recognise agency and choice
Young person - used in youth-specific services
Lived experience community member - person-first language that recognises expertise from experience

At Mobilise, we primarily use "people experiencing homelessness" to emphasise that homelessness is a circumstance, not an identity.

Organisations and Services

Charities

We Are Mobilise works with other charities in an effort to amplify the incredible work they are already doing. These charities may specialise in a range of homelessness and housing services, but may also be broader support services for young people, women, etc.

Charities may offer legal support, disaster relief, mental health services, and more.

Specialist Homelessness Services

Organisations funded to provide targeted support to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. This includes crisis accommodation, case management, outreach, and housing pathways support.

Other Key Terms

Out-of-Home Care

A temporary, medium, or long-term living arrangement for children and young people who cannot live in their family home. This includes:

Foster care
Kinship care (living with extended family)
Permanent care
Residential care

Often, young people who have lived in out-of-home care are at an increased risk of experiencing homelessness when they transition to independent living.

Recidivism

When someone with a previous criminal conviction reoffends. The link between homelessness and justice system involvement creates cycles where people exit prison without stable housing, increasing the risk of reoffending and returning to incarceration.

Rental Stress

When a household pays more than 30% of its income on rent. This is considered the threshold for housing affordability—beyond this, households struggle to meet other essential needs like food, healthcare, and utilities.

Rough Sleeping

Sleeping on the streets, in parks, in cars, or other locations not designed for habitation. This is primary homelessness, and represents only about 6% of total homelessness in Australia.

Couch Surfing

Staying temporarily with friends or relatives, moving from place to place. This is a form of secondary homelessness and is one of the most common but least visible forms of homelessness.

Housing First

An evidence-based approach that prioritises moving people experiencing homelessness into independent and permanent housing as quickly as possible, with support services provided alongside housing. This model has been highly successful internationally, particularly in Finland.

Assertive Outreach

When support services proactively go out to meet people experiencing homelessness where they are (on the streets, in parks, etc.) rather than waiting for people to come to them. This approach recognises that many people face barriers to accessing traditional service locations.

Why Language Matters

The terms we use shape how we think about homelessness and the people experiencing it. Person-first language ("people experiencing homelessness" rather than "the homeless") recognises that homelessness is a circumstance, not an identity.

Understanding professional terminology helps volunteers communicate effectively with service providers and understand the support landscape, while using respectful, humanising language maintains the dignity of everyone involved.

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Last Updated: January 2026