Unhide Homelessness: the 94% you never see
Picture the ocean. A thin sliver of sky above the surface, and below it everything else, vast and out of sight. In 2025, that was the image we put on billboards across Australia, with one line written down in the deep: 94% of homelessness is hidden. The campaign was Unhide Homelessness, made possible by out-of-home media partner JCDecaux.
Most homelessness is hidden
Most people experiencing homelessness are not the people we see sleeping on the street. In Australia, only around 6% are sleeping rough. The other 94% are out of sight: couch surfing, living in cars, in crowded or unsafe housing, or in short-term and emergency accommodation. It is real, it is everywhere, and most of us walk straight past it without ever knowing it is there.
The part below the waterline
When you look at the sea, you see the surface, not what is beneath it. Homelessness is the same. The person sleeping rough is the part above the waterline, visible and easy to picture. The 94% below it is the part we miss, and we wanted people to feel that in a single glance, on the morning commute or walking past a bus shelter.
It matters because homelessness can happen to almost anyone, through no fault of their own. A serious illness, a job loss, the end of a relationship, or escaping family violence can be all it takes. Once you understand that, the distance between “them” and “us” gets a lot smaller. Understanding turns into empathy, empathy into action, and action into a nation that decides to solve this.
Seeing is the first step
You cannot solve a problem you cannot see, which is why partners like JCDecaux matter so much. As the largest out-of-home media company in the world, they gave us the space to bring hidden homelessness into view for thousands of Australians, pro bono. Corporate partners like that help make the full reality of homelessness understood by as many people as possible, and we are deeply grateful for it.
We believe homelessness is solvable in Australia. If Unhide Homelessness changed the way you see it, help us keep going: partner with us, or donate to put support straight into the hands of people doing it tough
