by Yvette Brand
Homelessness has many faces - and it is changing.
Once thought of as the person sleeping rough in a park or a make-shift shelter, homelessness is now impacting families struggling with housing affordability, young people couch surfing, and increasingly, women and children seeking refuge from family violence.

As the housing crisis deepens, homelessness support services are facing increasing demand.
Quantum Support Services general manager youth and housing supports Mitchell Burney says the statistics reveal the harsh reality - more people are sleeping rough, more women and young people are escaping family violence, and more employed people are seeking support.
Cost of living and increasing rents are pushing working families into vulnerable situations.
Quantum Warragul is an identified "entry point" for people seeking housing support.
Current figures show 3644 households sought housing support at entry points across Gippsland including Warragul, Morwell, Yarram, Leongatha, Sale, Bairnsdale and Omeo in 2024/25.
Quantum case managers are at the front line of the crisis.
"The person walking through the door is already at their lowest and then we have to assess them," Mr Burney said. Case managers assess the needs and safety of everyone who walks through their door - and then they assess the "grim pool of resources" available to help those in need.
Mr Burney says homelessness takes on many forms.

"A lot of people think homelessness is rough sleeping. That is the most acute form of homelessness - people under bridges, people sleeping in the bush. It is the most devastating form of homelessness."

Thirty three per cent of people who accessed the Warragul entry point were rough sleepers - more than three times higher than the state average of seven to 10 per cent.
Rough sleeping is what most people associate with homelessness and is regarded as primary homelessness. But, Mr Burney explains, the overwhelming majority of cases are secondary and tertiary homelessness.
Mr Burney says the most significant form of secondary homelessness is couch surfing - where someone moves from couch to couch - staying with a family member for two weeks, a friend's house for a few nights - building a cycle of always having a place to sleep but not somewhere to call home.
"In those cases you might have shelter but it's not yours and it's not secure. It hits any age group and every cohort...it hits so many people over 55s and young families."
People facing tertiary homelessness are living in a home, but it is unsafe and insecure - "that means it might be dilapidated, it might be because of overcrowding, or it might be family violence and they stay because they have no other option."
For young people, Mr Burney says the circumstances are largely related to family violence, or relationship breakdowns. He says the violence is sometimes between parents, or parents and children but often is amongst siblings.
"We think of family violence as between intimate partners but family unit violence can really hit young people. They escape the home to be safe."
Mr Burney believes the impacts of COVID "sped up" the housing crisis.
Previously, he says homelessness was characterised by people on low incomes, experiencing inter-generational poverty and those with complex needs. Now, people who are employed and earning middle incomes face homelessness - "and we didn't see that five years ago."
"In the past five years it has changed. You think of homelessness being that classic middle aged man but that has been thrown out the window. There are many women.
"It's because the drivers for homelessness have gone up...incomes haven't gone up but the median rent price for families went up and the availability of rentals decreased.
Mr Burney says academics base a functioning housing system on a three per cent vacancy rate. In Gippsland it is 1.8 per cent and the number of new lettings decreased 8.4 per cent - the biggest decrease in regional Victoria for the 12 month period from March 2024 to 2025.
"It means it's almost impossible for our clients to get rentals - and we don't have the availability of affordable social housing to support our clients.
"There are less specialist options for single middle aged men. Youth and women are woefully inadequate but it's less for a male."
While Mr Burney says family violence is the number one reason for homelessness, housing affordability is increasingly becoming a major factor.
"With the housing crisis and the cost of living, it makes it a very, very hard system to break into.
"Now we are seeing people who are employed sleeping in their cars.
Of the 60,000 households on Victoria's waiting list for social and affordable housing, Mr Burney says there are people who are actively homeless, escaping family violence and existing tenants living in an unliveable home.
"It's desperate," he says. "We have people going without support that want it and then there are plenty of people out there who don't want the support, or have been failed so many times before."