The main driver of homelessness in Australia is housing costs – post-COVID rents, house prices and interest rates are all much higher. To house everyone, the housing system needs a major overhaul.
It’s often claimed that reforming tenancy laws to better protect tenants will drive landlords out of the market, leading to fewer rental properties. A new study finds no evidence to support the claim.
Improving access to affordable housing and increasing benefit assistance rates are some sustainable solutions to the chronic cycle of homelessness faced by women fleeing violence.
Ageing brick apartment buildings of two to three storeys are being redeveloped in many suburbs. Typically, they are knocked down to be replaced by much bigger developments. But here’s an alternative.
Poorly regulated housing is leading to more greenhouse gas emissions through energy loss, increased energy requirements and greater exposure to weather extremes.
Halfway through its 10-year mandate to address issues like affordability and homelessness, the National Housing Strategy is providing little benefit for the vast majority of vulnerable households.
As Canada offers international students additional pathways to residency, we must improve support and retention strategies if we expect students to contribute to our sustained growth.
Within two weeks of Hurricane Fiona, FEMA had accepted most Puerto Rican housing aid applications. Nearly all those early approvals cover only $700 in assistance and won’t pay the tab for rebuilding.
Cities are clearing homeless encampments, sometimes violently, without providing those who live there any alternatives. Long-term solutions are needed to help people off the streets.
Ontario’s first Growth Plan won awards that recognized the province as a leader in the field. But since then, successive changes to the policy have sabotaged the original plan’s progress.
The proportion of housing that’s unoccupied has actually fallen since the last census, but the key issue is most of these dwellings are not in the areas where the need for housing is greatest.
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