Pre-print version Published version: Mark Wooden, Andrew Bevitt, Abraham Chigavazira, Nancy Greer, Guy Johnson, Eion Killackey, Julie Moschion, Rosanna Scutella, Yi-ping Tseng and Nicole Watson, ‘Introducing Journeys Home’, The Australian Economic Review 45(3), September 2012, pp. 368-378. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8462.2012.00690.x] Data Survey Introducing ‘Journeys Home’ Mark Wooden, Andrew Bevitt, Abraham Chigavazira, Nancy Greer, Guy Johnson, Eion Killackey, Julie Moschion, Rosanna Scutella, Yi-ping Tseng and Nicole Watson* * Wooden, Bevitt, Chigavazira, Moschion, Scutella, Tseng and Watson: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia; Greer: Roy Morgan Research, Victoria 3000 Australia; Johnson: AHURI Research Centre, RMIT University, Victoria 3000 Australia; Killackey: Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Corresponding author: Wooden, <m.wooden@unimelb.edu.au>. This article describes and presents data collected from the Journeys Home project, a longitudinal survey-based study managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). The findings and views reported in this article, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either FaHCSIA or the Melbourne Institute. Abstract Homelessness, despite being a major social policy issue in Australia, is an area that is not well served by data. Most sorely lacking is any large-scale panel study that follows a broad sample of persons with recent experience of homelessness and unstable housing histories. In 2010, the Australian Government set about rectifying this deficiency when it commissioned the Melbourne Institute to undertake a new panel study, now known as ‘Journeys Home’. This study draws its sample from the population of Centrelink income-support recipients, targeting persons identified in the administrative data as having recent experience of homelessness, as well as others with similar characteristics who may be vulnerable to housing difficulties in the future. This article summarises the design of this new study and reports on fieldwork outcomes from the first two waves of data collection. 1