Specialist Homelessness Services Collection Longitudinal Data Set

Identifying and definitional attributes

The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) Longitudinal Data Set is built from the annual Specialist Homelessness Services Data Collection. 

The SHSC Longitudinal Data Set consists of two components:

• Support period level data
• Client level data

Support period level data

The support period level data contains one record per support period delivered by Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) agencies. 

Client level data

The client level data contains one record per SHS client. An individual client may have more than one support period provided either by the same agency or by a different agency. Data for individual clients who received services from different agencies and/or at different times are matched based on a statistical linkage key (SLK). Each row in the client level data represents a client for with a full and valid SLK (i.e. date of birth, sex, and alpha code based on selected letters of name). Clients without full and valid SLK are excluded. 

Clients who had more than one support period during the reporting period may have presented with different characteristics across these support periods. For example, their main reason for seeking assistance may have been 'domestic and family violence' in their first support period, and 'housing crisis' in the second. Data items can reflect client responses:

• when they first or last became a client of a SHS agency during the reporting period (first reported or last reported items)
• at any point within the reporting period, e.g. identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people (ever reported items).

The client level data also includes:

• financial year indicators to indicate whether clients were receiving services in each financial year
• a range of longitudinal (monthly) items which provide the status of a particular variable in each month during the reporting period regardless of where the client received support (i.e. any state/territory).

The SHSC Longitudinal Data Set components are unweighted and updated yearly based on snapshot taken in August each year, which covers the period from July 2011 up to June of the latest financial year. SHS agencies can resubmit data for any period. As such, the SHSC Longitudinal Data Set is fluid and can change from year to year. 

https://www.aihw.gov.au/about-our-data/our-data-collections/specialist-homelessness-services-collection

Metadata

See Homelessness and Housing services sector NMDSs

Publications

Specialist homelessness services annual report

Specialist Homelessness Services Collection data cubes

Older clients of specialist homelessness services