Advance to Zero

About Advance to Zero

Advance to Zero (AtoZ) is a national initiative of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH) that supports local collaborative efforts to end homelessness, starting with rough sleeping – one community at a time.

Using a range of proven approaches from around the world, communities are supported not just to address individual instances of homelessness, or even reduce overall homelessness, but to end it altogether. We define an end to homelessness as being rare, brief and once-off.

Underpinned by a Housing First approach, AtoZ uses a combination of near real-time data collected through by-name lists and service coordination to form a picture of the names and needs of people experiencing homelessness in particular communities.

Each AtoZ community aims to reach a milestone called ‘functional zero’, which is achieved when a community can demonstrate that their system is routinely housing more people than are coming into it.

Advance to Zero in Western Australia

In late 2022, the WA State Government announced funding for the by-name list and support for the Housing First Homelessness Initiative, which has been called the WA Advance to Zero. In Western Australia, there are currently five communities participating in the AtoZ Campaign. These are Bunbury, Mandurah, Rockingham, Perth and Geraldton.

Communities are supported to participate in the AtoZ movement through a series of six-monthly improvement cycles which consist of a range of activities, improvement working groups, service coordination meetings, online and real world learning sessions and a range of other activities to support communities to work together, build capacity and share knowledge, tools and resources.