Advance to Zero

The Advance to Zero framework is based on the internationally successful and evidence based Built for Zero methodology and adapted to the Australian context.

By knowing people experiencing homelessness by name and understanding their needs, we can coordinate our efforts to connect people to housing and supports – one person and one family at a time.

 

The Advance to Zero framework allows us to learn a lot about homelessness in our communities:

 

• • Who is living without a home.
  • What supports they need to get into housing and stay housed.
  • The length of time a person has been homeless.
  • What strategies are or are not working towards our goal of solving homelessness.

 

It is not just a process of collecting data. The AtoZ data enables us to collaborate and find pathways to housing and supports for each person and family on the By-Name List.

 

It provides us with local-based insights that can be acted upon to improve our strategies towards ending homelessness.

 

De-identified data can help us to track our progress as well as identify system gaps, and advocate for systems change.

The Advance to Zero (AtoZ) Campaign in Australia is led by the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH). Formally, there are 24 Zero communities across Australia part of the Alliance, 15 of which are regularly reporting data.

 

In Queensland, Zero Communities are established in Brisbane, Logan, and Gold Coast. with more communities in the early stages of setting up, such as, Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay, and Central Queensland. Organisations participating in the AtoZ communities includes Specialist Homelessness Services, Housing Providers, other support services providers and Government organisations.

A Know By-Name List helps us to identify every person sleeping rough on the streets, in parks, tents, cars, and/or cycling in and out of motels and emergency accommodation  in our community, updated close to real time.

 

The goal of a By-Name List is to be a comprehensive list of every person in a community experiencing homelessness. However, to progress towards this goal, communities may start with sub population groups.

 

For each person on the list, the team aims to undertake a common triage tool, the Australian Homelessness Vulnerability Triage Tool (AHVTT), that includes the individual or family history, health, support and housing needs, helping us to link people with appropriate services.

 

In Queensland, the By-Name List and AHVTT data is stored in the CSNet database as a Qld Spoke for Zero Communities in recognition that people are transient across communities and will accept housing outside one community. 

It is a voluntary triage tool based on people’s disclosed information. It is used to match appropriate housing and support services.

 

 

The AHVTT provides information on individuals, youth, and families’ demographics, homeless history, social and daily needs, risk and safety, health and wellness. AHVTT data is also stored in the CSnet database with the goal of providing housing and supports need information for every individual, youth, and family in the By-Name List.

The Advance to Zero collaboration is growing in Queensland, and since July 2024, Zero communities in Brisbane, Logan, and the Gold Coast have transitioned to a shared database hosted by CSnet.

 

The CSnet database stores the By-Name List and AHVTT data and serves as a Qld Spoke for Zero Communities in recognition that people are transient across communities and will accept housing outside one community – the database provides centralised data access for Queensland Zero Communities.

 

Key benefits of using the database are the ability to better coordinate our efforts to end homelessness in Queensland, enhanced data security and technical support, and better reporting capabilities.

The goal of communities may be to include everyone experiencing homelessness in their By-Name List, but this depends on the collaborative networks and resources available – it takes time and negotiations.

 

Communities can use By-Name List for sub populations and track trends and progress in housing and supporting people to reduce homelessness. Data can also identify collaborative efforts to achieve the goals.

 

Communities can be supported to develop quality data on their local homeless population either by a commitment to include everyone and or a population group.

 

Either way, it is critical that we keep on top of data quality – so we can have accurate and reliable data for both our individual and systems advocacy activities. The use of scorecards can support communities to develop quality data on their local homeless population.

Scorecards use qualitative and quantitative data to ensure that communities have covered their full area and that all homeless service providers are coordinating their effort.    

The scorecard identifies quality through:

 

• Community participation and coverage by tracking collaboration and coordination of participating agencies who are working with people experiencing homeless within the community or within a population group. Agreement between agencies to collect information, placing it on a shared database and using the AHVTT – common triage tool.  

 

• Policy and procedures that are commonly understood stablishing clear and commonly understood policies that accurately reflect the circumstances of individuals or families entering and exiting the homelessness system.

 

• Data infrastructure to track data points related to systemwide inflow and outflow. It seeks to ensure the know by-name list has the capacity to track decided upon population-based statues in real time - including age, household size, rough sleeping status, type of accommodation, gender, family composition etc.

 

Some communities start by creating a by name list focused on single adults, families, rough sleeping. Others create lists that account for all household experiencing homeless in their community. The goal is to have a community wide list, but this is dependent on collaborative and resources.

Once a community has established a quality, system wide or population group by-name list, the data can be used to match people to housing solutions and supports, and to track the state of homelessness in the community or population group.

 

On an individual level, the By-Name List form the basis of service coordination meetings where providers in the community meet to coordinate and drive forward housing solutions, access to healthcare and services.   

 

On a systems level, teams can use the By-Name List through visualisations of deidentified data to track homelessness across the community or population group. Those data trends can be combined with actionable insights for developing improved strategies for solving homelessness in the community or population group.

TO TRACK OUR PROGRESS, WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY MOVE IN AND OUT OF HOMELESSNESS. 

Specifically, communities can look at six data points:

 

INFLOW

When a person loses housing and enters into homelessness, they’re part of what we call inflow. Inflow data captures people who are:

 

• Newly identified, or new to homelessness.

 

• Returned from housing, or people who experienced homelessness before, got connected with housing, and now are homeless again.

 

• Returned from Inactive, or people who experienced homelessness before and exited to unknown destinations, and now are homeless again.

 

ACTIVELY HOMELESS

This includes individuals or families that our collaborating agencies have engaged with, and we know by name rough sleeping - on the streets, in parks, tents, cars or temporary accommodation.

 

OUTFLOW

Outflow refers to people who have exited homelessness. This includes:

• Housed, or people who have been connected to permanent housing.

 

• Moved to inactive, or people who exit homelessness without support from the homeless response system, such as finding their own housing, moving out of the community, or entering a long-term stay in an institution.

 

 

Solving homelessness does not mean that no one will ever fall into homelessness again, but that our systems can quickly and effectively respond to it when it occurs, making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

 

Achieving functional zero indicates our system is at that point – it is when the number of people experiencing homelessness in a community or population group is lower than the average housing rate for a particular month.

The goal is that the By-Name List is as accurate and closer to real time as possible. Member organisations ideally update information about people they are supporting regularly. However, this is not always possible.

 

To mitigate this and ensure data accuracy, inactive and housing placements checks are undertaken monthly.

Queensland Zero communities store their by-name list data in a shared database hosted by CSnet – which will be used as a Qld Spoke for Zero Communities in recognition that people are transient across communities and will accept housing outside one community.

 

Considering the scope of data shared by member organisations, Zero community members in Queensland need to follow the requirements below so we are complying with the Australian Privacy Principles and the notifiable data breach regime.

 

• Anyone on the by-name list provides consent through the Advance to Zero Consent Form to be used by all Queensland Zero communities that are inputting data to the CSnet shared database. Consent is based on the purpose of sharing information for providing people on the By-Name List services related to the access to housing, health, and support services.

 

• All members that have access to the database hosted by CSnet will jointly hold the records with CSnet and each other, even if they were not the entity that collected the information from an individual and contributed it to the database. All members that ordinarily have obligations under the Privacy Act will be responsible for complying with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the notifiable data breach regime in relation to the jointly held records.

 

• All members of Queensland Zero communities – with or without access to the database - agree to the Qld Advance to Zero Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions when signing their Zero community Campaign Agreement – including organisations not bound by the Privacy Act.

 

If people do not consent or if they want a copy of the AHVTT or By-Name List data, we can provide that to them. The process to access their data is in laid out on the AtoZ Consent Form.

The experience has been that although that this can happen, it happens rarely.

What is critical to be known is that people are not denied services if consent is not provided. They are supported by individual organisations.

The collection, use, storage and sharing of By-Name List data by organisations is subject to all state and federal privacy laws that govern participating organisations.

Each organisation participating has the responsibility to act under the Privacy Act – so for collaborative is it have an agreement that we only work with funded agencies or entities that fulfill the requirements of the Privacy Act.

Each community has written policies and protocols that define how consent is obtained and documented in line with privacy legislation for informed, verbal or written consent.

 

Obtaining consent requires communities to post privacy notices and go through individual agreements with each person when and why it is being collected and with whom it will be shared.  

 

Zero Communities using the CSnet database have agreed to use similar templates for the Privacy Policy, consent forms, and Terms & Conditions.