Older private renters are far more likely to experience loneliness than their counterparts in social housing and that loneliness can be acute.
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‘People felt totally trapped’: what it’s like to be a pensioner renting privately as Australia’s housing costs soar
The Conversation, CC BY39 MB(download)
On today's episode, Alan Morris shares some of the deeply moving stories he heard when he set out to interview older Australians in private rental accommodation and social housing about loneliness.
People living in private rental housing were much more likely than social housing residents to say they felt lonely.
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Increasing numbers of older Australians don’t own their homes. Whether they are private renters or live in social housing can make a big difference to their risk of loneliness and anxiety.
Many places overseas require developers to build a certain proportion of affordable housing, but Victoria has opted for a voluntary negotiated approach.
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People on the minimum wage can afford only 2% of private rentals and only 1% if on the pension. Affordable housing requirements are often mandatory overseas, but Victoria is relying on negotiation.
Too many Australians struggle to get their housing maintained and problems fixed.
Trevor Charles Graham/Shutterstock
Having quality housing matters. What’s standing in the way of ensuring every Australian has housing that meets basic comfort and health standards? And how can we overcome these problems?
Policies focused on ownership do little to help lower-income households that are struggling to pay the rent.
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The policy focus remains on home ownership, but a new survey shows slight improvements in affordability do little to help people on low incomes. Their plight calls for better social housing policy.
Social housing providers can help people get into work, with tailored, long-term support.
This shed has been illegally converted into housing. Two prams and three mattresses are visible.
Informal Accommodation and Vulnerable Households, author provided courtesy of Fairfield City Council
With Australian city rents too high for low-income earners, increasing numbers are forced to share houses or rooms or to live in options like ‘beds in sheds’ and other illegal dwellings.
Public housing in Paris (left) and Melbourne (right) has similar impacts on residents’ integration into the community.
Wissem Felah, Sandra Carrasco
Landlords could have a big impact on public health, if they help their tenants to feel at home.
The numbers of buyers able to celebrate moving into their first home are still well down on pre-GFC levels – and low-income renters are faring even worse.
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Housing policy is a stark point of difference at this election. While the government took promising steps to set up social housing finance, it has yet to give any sign it will finish what it started.
Councils have sold off vast amounts of land since 2014 – land that was previously used for important public services.
The recent slump in building approvals is a reminder of the risks of an over-reliance on a boom-and-bust market to meet all housing needs.
Joel Carrett/AAP
Housing markets never have met the lowest-income households’ needs. Now is the time to tackle problems that have been years in the making by creating a better system to supply their housing.
The Heights is a new ABC TV soap opera set on a social housing estate. From a working class perspective, there’s a lot to love about the show.
Ben King/ABC TV
Socialisation of housing would see profits from rent put back into the maintenance and modernisation of the buildings.
A cake made to farewell the last tenant to leave the Sirius building, which was built in Sydney at a time when governments saw the need to invest directly in public housing.
Ben Rushton/AAP
If we recognised social housing as infrastructure as essential as transport links, schools and hospitals, not properly investing in it could become unthinkable.
The extra $1 billion Premier Gladys Berejiklian (left) and Social Housing Minister Pru Goward say will be ‘harnessed’ for social housing is actually Commonwealth Rent Assistance for which tenants transferred to community housing providers become eligible.
Simon Bullard/AAP
For the first time a state government housing agency has effectively contracted out all its operations in some regions, but will this improve and add to the total social housing stock?
It’s time to ditch this divisive label, and recognise the real cause of housing inequality.
Labor leader Bill Shorten has announced a policy based on a solid principle of fairness, but with a second-best model of delivering social housing.
Julian Smith/AAP
Labor has made a substantial commitment to tackling inequality in Australia, but has taken a second-best approach to overcoming the huge shortfall of social housing.
Many tenants who lit up their apartments in the ‘We Live Here’ campaign see redevelopment of the Waterloo housing estate as a ploy to move them out of the area.
Aaron Bunch/AAP
Working-class residents of Waterloo have a history of resisting threats to their community. Many tenants see the redevelopment of public housing as state-led gentrification to squeeze them out.
The current social housing construction rate – barely 3,000 dwellings a year – does not even keep pace with rising need, let alone make inroads into today’s backlog.
Joel Carrett/AAP
A tenfold increase in building is needed to overcome the current social housing shortfall and cover projected growth in need. But it can be done, and direct public investment is the cheapest way.
Professor; School of Economics, Finance and Property, and Director, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Curtin Research Centre, Curtin University
