Australia's homeless crisis is becoming so bad many are being kicked back onto the streets by shelters because there's no room.
A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looks at the state and federal Supported Accommodation Assistance program for homeless people, and victims of domestic violence.
It's found that although 14,000 people with housing needs were accommodated each night, hundreds were not.
More than half of the people turned away were under the age of 20, and it's found some groups, like couples with children, had more difficulty accessing accommodation than singles did.
Felicity Murdoch from the Institute of Health and Welfare says more than 350 people - mostly teenagers are being turned away every night.
“There’s certainly more people seeking accommodation, than there are places available.
“One of the things that we’ve found is that families in particular seem to have particular accommodation difficulties – one of the reasons for this is that families, when they are accommodated tend to stay a lot longer than individuals.”
Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek says the AIHW figures make it clear governments need to improve their existing response to homelessness.
Ms Plibersek says the government has spent $150 million on an initiative to build 600 homes for the homeless, and is developing a white paper to set out a national plan to reduce homelessness.
