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To understand the Australian Social Policy on Homelessness and service delivery of today, society needs to look back into the 1800’s. Australia’s early policies and legislation were an adapted from English laws. Of these policies the one that had the greatest affected on the homeless of early Australia was the Vagrancy Legislation Act of 1851 (Groves 2005).Vagrancy Act 1851, ss. 1–7 classified prostitution, begging, being without lawful means, public drunkenness, consorting with known criminals all as an illegal offences. As a result of this Vagrancy Act homeless people than were classified as criminals and as criminals homeless people need to be reframed (Groves 2005). The early service delivery for the homeless in the 1800’s was limited to charitable organisations and Churches(Catholic Australian 2014 & Alexander 2013) who ran workhouses to help alleviated victims of the Vagrancy Act (Vagrancy Act 1851, ss. 1–7) and reconnect the homeless with society. The 1800’s was a dark time for both the homeless and the organisation who work to support safety and basic needs by those affected by harmlessness.

The 1900’s Legislation and Social Policies were influenced by the theories of both Liberals and Labor Government. The roles of three main sectors in the 1900’s where the state, the market and the Non Government agencies were all critical contributors in the integration of Social Policy involving the homeless in Australia (Streeton & Orchard 1994). Streeton and Orchard go onto explain that social issues were pushed from one sector to another with no clear direction of what was to be done and whose responsibility was the homeless. One of the major changes that occur mid century, was the introduction of Supplementary Assistance better kno...

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...Homelessness.

The next significant step in combating homelessness come in the form of the White Paper release entitles The Road Home (). December 2008 the Australian Government outline a new approach to breaking the cycle of homelessness in Australia. This includes increase in funding for affordable housing aim at people who have experience long term homelessness. January 1st 2009 brought about the name change of the Commonwealth State Housing Agreements to the National Affordable Housing Agreement. Government and agencies often work now in partnership to work with specific groups to empower the homeless and act as advocates when need. In the following four years from the release of the White Paper 192 new programs have been developed to work towards an Australia free of Homelessness. These program cover all people affected by or in treats of homelessness.