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A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia finds that a large number of Australians are ending up on the streets after leaving public housing and public psychiatric facilities. The study suggests that alternative housing models are required to properly tackle Australia’s growing homelessness problem.According to the research, which focuses on inner city Sydney, one in five people leaving these government support services end up homeless. Most of them will be older men in their 40s, and many will have substance abuse issues, brain injuries, or intellectual disabilities.The study’s lead author Olaf Nielssen told The Guardian that government services could take a cheaper and more effective approach to helping homeless Australians. He said that the cycle of people bouncing between mental health facilities and homelessness was extremely expensive.“My estimate, just high-balling from my dataset, is $100,000 a year in avoidable hospital admissions, avoidable ED presentations, possibly avoidable criminal justice presentations,” Nielssen said. “The city of Sydney council tell us that homeless people cost them $30,000 a year just in cleaning up and sanitary costs.“There’s no point in doing research if you’re not going to do something about it, so I’ve got together with some property types and our estimate is that we can house homeless people in ultra-cheap psychiatric hospitals for $25,000 a year, so you’re looking at a minimum of $100,000 saved.”According to Homelessness Australia, there are currently 105,237 homeless people living in Australia. That’s 49 out of every 10,000 people.