A record 486 people are sleeping rough on the streets of central Sydney, a figure which the lord mayor, Clover Moore, has lamented as a “dramatic rise” from the 352 counted in the last survey.

The figure comes from a street count of about two-thirds of the City of Sydney local government area taken overnight on 23 February.

It found 486 people sleeping rough and 404 people staying in homelessness hostels. The number of people sleeping rough is an increase from 365 in February 2015 and 352 in August, and is an all-time record since comparable street counts began in August 2008.

Moore said homelessness was caused by a lack of affordable housing, supported housing for people with mental health and substance abuse issues and social housing.

“This is a tragic situation and I’m deeply saddened by the dramatic rise in numbers,” she said.

“We all know Sydney is in the grip of a housing crisis and now even middle-income earners are finding it tough to pay their rents and mortgages.”

According to City of Sydney figures, median rental prices in the city area have grown by almost 60% since 2006 but household incomes have only grown by 48%. It estimates 84% of lower-income households in the area are in housing stress, spending more than 30% of their gross income on housing.

Homelessness NSW released a report on Friday that showed high rates of substance abuse and mental illness among Sydney homeless. The report is based on a survey conducted of 516 homeless people in the Sydney local government area between 30 November and 2 December.

The report found that, of those surveyed, 72% reported experiencing substance abuse; 49% had been the victims of physical, psychological, sexual or other abuse; 53% had been in prison; and 53% had seen a professional about a mental health issue in the previous six months. The report said it was “significant” that 34% of participants had been in foster care.

The report found 17% of participants were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, 10% were New Zealanders, 35% reported having a disability, 15% were over 55 and 7% were under 25.

Respondents were overwhelmingly male (82%). The average age of homeless people surveyed was 42 and the average time on the street was five years and four months.

The report found that only eight of the 260 people interviewed in 2010 when a similar survey was undertaken are still experiencing homelessness.



The chief executive of Homelessness NSW, Katherine McKernan, said “this clearly demonstrates that a supply of affordable housing with support can eliminate homelessness”.

“The data clearly shows that a lack of affordable housing is a major driver of homelessness as all people surveyed are struggling to live on less than $400 a week – this places them all below the poverty line,” she said.

“We also know that we need to stop people becoming homeless in the first place and the fact that we have so many new people on the street shows the failure of the broader government service system.”

The majority of participants relied on government assistance for income, with 35% receiving a disability support pension of $782 per fortnight and 47% on another government payment of $520 per fortnight. It found 13% received no income at all.

The survey revealed 60% of people were currently sleeping rough, 23% currently residing in a temporary or crisis accommodation service and 17% stated they were staying with friends and family or in a boarding house.

In terms of how much help people needed to stop being homeless, 13% only required housing they could afford with minimal if any support; 43% needed short-term support with housing they could afford; and 36% required housing with intensive support, in some cases for the duration of their lives.

Moore said the council had committed $4.2m over the next three years to help fund outreach and support services.

In February the NSW family, community services and social housing minister, Brad Hazzard, launched a 10-year strategy to tackle homelessness through rental assistance schemes to keep people in the private rental market and out of public housing, including a medium-term rental subsidy, financial counselling, bond loans and rent advances.

Hazzard told Guardian Australia that, as Sydney grows, the rate of homelessness – which currently sits at about 0.4% – is also expected to increase.

“However numbers do fluctuate as people move in and out of the city seasonally and across the country,” he said.

Hazzard said the state government was spending $182m on homelessness services this year and concentrating on improving co-ordination between services.