4. Characteristics of the SAAP services and clients participating in the survey

4.1 The services sample

The 75 SAAP services participating in the survey represented a response rate of just under 80 per cent of all those invited to take part (94). All States and Territories were represented in the sample, as were all six primary client target-groups, as well as services that were small, medium and large in size (according to recorded support periods).

Table 4.1 below compares the service sample with the population of SAAP services as a whole in 2005-06, based on the SAAP National Data Collection and the database of service information provided to the researchers by FaHCSIA. This shows that the sample was largely representative of SAAP services across Australia, except for (as noted earlier) the small number of services funded as peak bodies, newly starting services and those that provided only telephone support.

Jurisdictionally, the sample contained a small under-representation of services in Victoria, and slight over-representations of those in NSW and Queensland, in comparison with the whole population of services. In terms of primary client groups, our sample had slightly fewer services catering for single men and for families, and somewhat more services for women with children. In terms of service type, the sample closely mirrored the overall distribution, except that there was a slight under-representation of services providing emergency and short-term accommodation. This is not surprising given the decision to focus on clients with an involvement of four weeks or more. The size criterion was a construct of the research and, as stated above, seems not always to have been accurate, but the sample did broadly reflect the relative distribution of support periods across the services as a whole.

4.2 The SAAP client sample

In total, 630 SAAP clients participated in the survey. This represents approximately 0.4 per cent of the population of SAAP clients (AIHW, 2006b). Because clients were recruited by the services according to specified criteria rather than through a direct random sampling process, we would not expect the sample to be fully representative of the SAAP clientele. Nevertheless, the known characteristics of the sample were broadly in line with those of the client population. In some cases, survey respondents did not answer all the questions. In the tables below, cases of non-response to one or other of the relevant variables are counted as ‘missing’ and excluded from the percentage totals, but reported in each table.

Table 4.2 compares the sample by sex and age group with the whole SAAP population. Our sample included fewer men proportionately than the population as a whole (35 per cent compared with 40 per cent), and both men and women in the sample were somewhat over-represented in the 15-24-year-old age bracket, and under-represented in the youngest (<15) and oldest (65 and over) groups. Men in our sample were also slightly over-represented in the 45-54 years bracket. Comparison of the mean and median ages of the sample with those for the whole population, however, shows that the sample was only marginally younger overall.

Table 4.1:
	SPRC services sample %	NDCA 05-06 Data %
Jurisdiction
ACT	2.7	3.8
NSW	30.7	29.8
NT	1.3	2.8
QLD	20.0	15.6
SA	9.3	6.2
TAS	4.0	2.7
VIC	22.7	29.3
WA	9.8	9.8
Total	100.0	100.0
Primary target group
1: Independent, above the school leaving age and unaccompanied by parent/guardian	38.7	36.0
2: Males without partner or children	5.3	7.0
3: Females without partner or children	4.0	3.6
4: Families	6.7	9.2
5: Females with children	26.7	22.8
6: More than one group	18.7	21.4
Total	100.0	100.0
		SAAP database of services %
Service delivery model
1: Crisis or short-term accommodation (< 3 months)	41.3	37.6
2: Medium (3-6 months) to long-term accommodation (> 6 months)	38.7	37.9
3: Support only on a walk-in basis	1.3	1.4
4: Support provided in a setting other than the SAAP service	5.3	4.4
5: Telephone support	0.0	1.0
6: Peak body	0.0	0.3
7: More than one model	12.0	13.5
8: Unspecified	1.3	4.0
Total	100.0	100.0
		SAAP database of services %
Service delivery model
1: Crisis or short-term accommodation (< 3 months)	41.3	37.6
2: Medium (3-6 months) to long-term accommodation (> 6 months)	38.7	37.9
3: Support only on a walk-in basis	1.3	1.4
4: Support provided in a setting other than the SAAP service	5.3	4.4
5: Telephone support	0.0	1.0
6: Peak body	0.0	0.3
7: More than one model	12.0	13.5
8: Unspecified	1.3	4.0
Total	100.0	100.0
Size
Small (< 100 support periods)	58.7	59.3
Medium (100-500 support periods)	32.0	29.8
Large (> 500 support periods)	5.3	4.1
New services	0.0	2.8
Unspecified	4.0	4.0
Total	100.0	100.0

Sources: SPRC survey sample (n=75); AIHW (2006b); SAAP services database supplied by FaHCSIA (N=1187)

Table 4.2: Comparison of client sample with whole SAAP population, by age and sex
	SAAP Client Sampl %			NDCA Data (05-06) %
Age	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
< 15yrs	0.0	1.0	0.7	1.8	2.1	1.9
15-24	35.5	38.0	37.1	30.7	35.5	34.6
25-34	19.2	27.8	24.8	24.6	28.2	26.7
35-44	23.4	22.3	22.6	22.6	21.3	21.8
45-54	16.4	8.0	10.9	12.5	8.5	10.2
55-64	4.2	1.5	2.4	5.3	3.0	4.0
65 or over	1.4	1.5	1.5	2.6	1.6	2.0
Total	35.9	64.1	100.0	40.0	59.9	100.0
Mean age (yrs) Median age (yrs)	33.0 32.0	29.8 28.0	30.9 29.0	33.4 32.0	30.8 29.0	31.8 30.0
N Missing			617 13

Sources: SPRC SAAP client survey; AIHW (2006b)

Comparisons by country of birth, and by Indigenous self-identification, show some differences (Table 4.3). Our sample included a higher proportion of women than men born outside Australia; and of those born outside Australia, women were more likely than men to come from non-English speaking countries. In the sample, 14 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women reported that they usually spoke a language other than English at home. While our sample included a reasonable representation of Indigenous clients, the overall proportion was somewhat smaller than in the SAAP population as a whole (14.3 per cent compared with 17.5 per cent).

Table 4.3: Comparison of client sample with whole SAAP population, by sex, country of birth and Indigeneity
	SAAP Client Sampl %			NDCA Data (05-06) %
Country of birth	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Australia	84.5	79.8	81.4	86.8	84.7	85.6
Another English-speaking country	10.2	5.8	7.1	5.1	4.2	4.5
A non-English speaking country	4.7	15.0	11.5	8.0	11.0	9.9
Self-identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander	7.9	17.5	14.2	11.6	20.7	17.1
N Missing			620 10

Sources: SPRC SAAP client survey; AIHW (2006b)

For the majority of survey participants (52 per cent) the highest level of education achieved was some secondary schooling (Table 4.4). Fourteen per cent had achieved a TAFE qualification and, perhaps surprisingly, five per cent had achieved a university degree.

More than two-thirds of the sample overall (and 74 per cent of the men) described themselves as single at the time they came to the SAAP service. Twenty-six per cent overall were separated or divorced (29 per cent of the women). Three-fifths came to the service alone and a further 28 per cent (mainly but not exclusively women) came on their own with their children. Men were much more likely to come alone (87 per cent). Only a small percentage came either with partners (four per cent) with partners and children (two per cent) or with another family member, such as a parent or sibling (six per cent). Overwhelmingly, therefore, the SAAP service, experience was one that people in the sample encountered on their own or as a single parent.

In total, just under 30 per cent of clients arrived at the SAAP service accompanied by children; most of these were women (96 per cent).

Table 4.4: Educational, marital and family status of SAAP client sample
Header	Male %	Female %	Total %
Educational status (highest level achieved)
Primary school	3.3	2.2	2.6
Some secondary school	55.7	50.2	52.1
Completed secondary school	14.1	21.3	19.0
Trade certificate/apprenticeship or similar	6.7	5.7	6.0
TAFE qualification	15.7	13.7	14.4
University degree	3.7	6.2	5.4
No schooling	0.5	0.5	0.5
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
Marital status
Single	73.7	61.7	65.8
Separated/divorced	19.2	29.1	25.7
Married/partnered	5.2	7.5	6.7
Widowed	1.9	1.8	1.8
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
Family status when arrived at service
Alone	87.4	45.7	60.2
With partner	4.7	3.7	4.0
With children (on own)	2.8	40.7	27.5
With partner and children	0.9	2.7	2.1
With another family member	4.1	7.1	6.1
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
N Missing or multiple responses			612 18

Source: SPRC SAAP client survey

One question asked in the survey was ‘If you have any children or young people living with you now, how old are they?’ Those who stated that they had at least one child or young person living with them ‘now’ comprised 42.5 per cent of the sample, a much larger proportion than those reporting that they had children with them when they arrived at the service. One explanation for this is that, in the accommodation they had at the time of the survey, they were able to be reunited with children who were not with them when they presented to the service. Just under 40 per cent of those answering this question had only one child, but there were also a small number of large families, including one with eight children. Just under eight per cent of those reporting that they were living with children were men.

The ages of the children of the sample clients appeared broadly to reflect the population of children accompanying SAAP clients across Australia (AIHW, 2006b), as Table 4.5 shows, except that the sample had a higher proportion of children in the youngest age group (in line with its slightly younger profile overall). It also included a few young people aged 18 or over, who would not be counted as children by the standard SAAP definition.

Table 4.5: Comparison of accompanying children in SAAP client sample with those in the SAAP population, by age group
	Children accompanying SAAP client sample %	Accompanying children in whole SAAP population %
Age (yrs)
0-4	49.9	44.0
5-9	24.7	29.2
10-14	16.8	20.7
15-17	7.0	6.1
18 or above	1.6	NA
Total	100	100
Mean	6.8	6.2
Median	6.0	5.0

Sources: Sources: SPRC SAAP client survey; AIHW (2006b)

4.3 Summary

Although the recruitment of a client survey sample through the SAAP services proved to be difficult and time-consuming, the eventual results suggest that the method was effective. Differences in age and sex profile, country of birth, Indigeneity and the ages of children need to be borne in mind in interpreting the survey results, but overall the achieved sample fairly closely represented the SAAP clientele nationally, and provides a good information base for examining client experiences of homelessness and SAAP service use.

The next Section reports the main findings of the survey.

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