Seen and housed: building a homelessness system that works for LGBTQIA+ and gender diverse people

Wednesday 7 October, 1:30pm | Concurrent Session 11

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LGBTQIA+ and gender diverse people are significantly overrepresented among Australians experiencing homelessness, yet they remain among the least visible and most poorly served people in the system. Family rejection, discrimination and violence drive many into housing crisis, and heavily gendered, non-affirming services too often keep them from seeking help at all.

This session brings together practitioners, advocates and people with lived experience who are showing what a different approach looks like.

Creating housing safety: co-designing homelessness solutions with women, trans and gender diverse people with lived experience of homelessness and violence

Tanya Corrie, Juno and Bron Firman, Women's Housing Alliance

Tanya and Bron will present on the Housing Safety Project. Developed through a year-long co-design process with women, trans and gender diverse people who have experienced homelessness and gendered violence, the project responds to a system where people are routinely turned away as "not homeless enough" and describe being "handballed like packages, not people." It has produced eight keys for designing services that meet people's needs, along with an early intervention model that brings safety and housing together to prevent homelessness before crisis hits.

Addressing the needs of trans and gender diverse people in the housing sector

Bella-Cate Rose, Gender Pathways Coordinator, A Gender Agenda 

Bella-Cate’s presentation will explore how housing stress and homelessness affect the trans and gender diverse community in the ACT. They will outline why emergency and crisis housing so often fails TGD people, and what individuals and services need in order to do better.

Pride in lace: designing specialist support for LGBTQIA+ people experiencing homelessness

Josh Tilley-Darvill, VincentCare Victoria and Callum Fearne, Drummond Street

Josh and Callum will share the story of Pride in Place, Victoria's first specialist homelessness service exclusively for LGBTQIA+ people. Delivered through a consortium that pairs generalist homelessness expertise with queer-affirming clinical leadership, the program embeds specialist Service and Peer Navigators in a multidisciplinary response, and a high proportion of participants report that their identities were consistently respected. Josh and Callum will speak candidly about what they have learned, including the limits that a shortage of safe, inclusive housing places on even the best support.

The panel discussion will then tackle the bigger questions. What does affirming practice look like, and how can it be embedded across mainstream services, not just specialist ones? And what policy, funding and practice reforms are needed to move beyond pilots and short-term funding toward a system where no LGBTQIA+ or gender diverse person is turned away, harmed or made invisible?

Whether you work in frontline services, policy, housing provision or advocacy, this session offers practical models and a clear agenda for change.

Registration for Australian Homelessness Conference 2026 closes 28 September. Save 10% when you book three or more tickets in the one transaction.