Workplace Trauma on the Social Housing and Homelessness Frontline

Exposure to workplace trauma is an almost universal experience. It’s frequent, cumulative, and embedded in frontline housing and homelessness work.

People working in the housing and homelessness sector are exposed to significant trauma due to their role as service providers, often of last resort, for people who commonly have complex needs. Setting out to explore the extent, causes and impacts of that workplace trauma, researchers utilised a national survey of frontline staff in the housing and homelessness sectors, ran interviews with frontline staff and stakeholders in New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria, and conducted a range of workshops.

Published by AHURI in February 2026, the overriding key finding of this research is that exposure to workplace trauma is an almost universal experience. It’s frequent, cumulative, and embedded in frontline housing and homelessness work.

The national survey revealed that frontline workers had high exposure to:

Challenging behaviour: 98% observed clients/tenants under the influence of alcohol or drugs and 91% had supported clients/tenants with experiences of family violence.
Death, suicide and self-harm: 95% had spoken with clients/tenants about suicidal ideation, 88% had clients/tenants who had engaged in self-harm, and 78% had worked with a client/tenant who had died.
Threats and abuse: 96% experienced trauma due to verbal aggression, 85% due to threats against them or their families, 59% due to physical assault and 28% due to sexual assault from clients/tenants. 60% reported experiencing the presence of a weapon at work.

They also found that workplace trauma can be exacerbated by high caseloads, lack of supervision, and systemic factors including having to manage emergency situations created by failures and limitations of other services and processes. Organisations were also impacted as workplace trauma commonly created high staff turnover, increased illness, and difficulties with workforce recruitment and retention.

Recommended policy actions

A range of policy actions were suggested by the researchers including:

Improved work design – such as increased staffing, smaller caseloads, guardrails to prevent overwork.
Improved conditions – including better pay and leave options as well as skills training.
Increased support for frontline staff – more clinical supervision and psychological first aid.
Increased accountability and collaboration – including improved information-sharing between agencies to minimise retraumatising clients.

Sean’s thoughts

This report could not come at a better time for the sector. For many years, we have been focussed on how to deliver services in a way that will allow our tenants and service users to engage meaningfully. This is perhaps most notably seen in our trauma-informed practices. This report highlights the workforce impact of these practices which cannot be understated. Indeed, these are conversations that we at the AHI have been having with members over the last six months. The impact of this work to the individual worker and the organisation is significant, and we all have a part to play in addressing it.

To find out more about this research project and read the full report go to https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/455

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