ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of homelessness in Australia, with a particular focus on the definitions and discourses that inform practice, policy, and research. It begins with Peter's story that highlights the complexities of issues contributing to homelessness and failed service responses. The chapter then provides a critical analysis of academic and policy definitions of homelessness through examining definitional debates and causation and enumeration discourses. It falls within a tradition of critical social policy analysis that argues that social problems such as homelessness are materially experienced but discursively constructed. The chapter also explores policy and research co-design possibilities, with the aim to incorporate the diverse voices of people who experience homelessness in policy making processes. Homelessness in Australia can be examined by highlighting the social inequalities evident in such case studies and homelessness statistics. The debates about definitions of homelessness has centered on two main concerns: the notion of home, and the use of subjective/objective criteria in defining homelessness.
