Even when sharing a house, the average cost of rent means very little is left over from the Newstart allowance for food and living costs.
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Once rent is paid, having to live on only $14 a day doesn’t cover the costs of job seeking. The evidence of the need to increase Newstart and Rent Allowance is overwhelming.
This child and her mother found refuge at a women’s shelter, but many are unable to find the secure housing they need to escape family violence.
Dan Peled/AAP
Indigenous children are admitted to out-of-home care at 11 times the rate for non-Indigenous children. The lack of safe housing for mothers fleeing family violence is a key factor.
Australians want greater housing choice, including affordable compact homes that are neither large detached houses nor multistorey apartments.
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Australians’ need for smaller and more diverse dwellings is growing. The planning system is not providing enough of this housing, and self-serving opposition to it should be resisted.
Increasing numbers of older Australians face a harder time paying the bills when they retire because they’ll still be paying off a mortgage or renting a home.
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People over 65 who still have a mortgage or are renting are projected to double in number by 2031. The trend is likely to hit government budgets and leave more retirees in poverty.
In India, air conditioning system vendors waiting for customers during an episode of high heat.
Raveendran/AFP
As our planet warms, the number of air-conditioning units worldwide is expected to triple by 2050 – yet their use drives climate change. So how can we break the cycle?
There is help available for young refugees who find themselves homeless in Australia, if only they can find it.
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Young refugees are at high risk of being homeless in Australia. A five-year study has found re-establishing connections with their communities was the pathway out of homeless for most of them.
Shared houses work well for 82% of people living in them in their early 20s, but only 25% see this as a long-term option.
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The housing aspirations of young Australians change as they enter their late 20s and early 30s. But having somewhere safe and secure to call home is the top priority for all young adults.
Older Australians aspire to the security of owning their own home, but prefer smaller houses in their later years.
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Most older Australians want to live in a home they own, preferably in the middle and outer suburbs of a city. But increasing numbers look unlikely to realise their housing aspirations.
Families can use their EITC to improve their housing.
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The Earned Income Tax Credit was established in 1975 to reduce payroll taxes and help with rising prices for low-income families. Today, it could help poor families with housing.
Most new apartments were not designed with families in mind and parents of young children can struggle to make social connections.
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Almost half of apartment residents in Australia are families, but few high-rise dwellings were built with them in mind. Many find these apartments present barriers to building social connections.
While politicians ignore calls to raise Newstart, alarming levels of financial stress among private renters, particularly in low-rent outer suburbs, show why current welfare payments are too low.
Examples from Leeds of 1920s spacious semi-detatched homes built after the Addison Act to replace crowded slum housing.
Chemical Engineer
The Addison Act of 1919 introduced admirable housing standards, but in the century since the industry has put a sqeeze on space and quality.
The damaging effects of housing disadvantage on people’s mental health can persist even years after their housing situation improves.
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The difficulties for people facing housing disadvantage don’t end as soon as their situation improves. They are at higher risk of poorer mental health years or even decades later.
The real work starts now.
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Whether you owned a home or not used to be straightforward. The boundaries are becoming permeable.
Many people exit the mental healthcare system into homelessness, only to return repeatedly to hospital-based care, and sometimes the prison system.
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Without a place to live it is nearly impossible to take care of your mental health needs.The upcoming Royal Commission should recognise the connection between stable housing and mental health.
Without off-street space, vehicle residents crowd available public parking in Seattle. May 8, 2016.
Graham Pruss
Many cities have no standard method for counting the number of people who live in their cars. This means that their issues are often overlooked in policies designed to help the homeless.
Street life, Addis Ababa.
milosk50 / Shutterstock.
Development should not be pursued at the expense of the very people who helped to create value and meaning in the city.
Mirvac Pavilions Olympic Park under construction. Build to rent won’t be a simple solution to fix housing affordability, but it can fulfil many other public policy objectives.
Professor; School of Economics, Finance and Property, and Director, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Curtin Research Centre, Curtin University
Professor of Social Epidemiology and Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne