Governments’ policy inaction and complacency bear much of the blame for the lack of affordable housing. But a new report detects signs of hope in Queensland.
Even changing the tax system won’t end steadily-climbing property prices. They are the result of urbanisation, and while COVID has eased some of the pressures, it has added some more.
People wait years for social housing. In before-and-after interviews, the fortunate ones who were placed in secure, affordable housing describe the profound difference it has made in their lives.
Image courtesy of the Housing for the Aged Action Group
An ageing population is caught in a perfect storm of rising house prices and rents, falling home ownership rates, mortgage debt carried into retirement, insecure rentals and a lack of social housing.
People in search of more affordable housing gravitate to the outer suburbs, but may then find higher transport costs erase the benefit of lower mortgage payments.
Renters with nowhere to go. Home owners forced into mortgage stress. If our homes are damaged by floods or fires, it damages our health for years afterwards
Brisbane rents are up nearly 50% more than the national average and homelessness in Queensland is increasing at the fastest rate in the country. The state can take several steps to turn things around.
Despite a common belief that councils won’t approve tiny houses and modular and container homes, early findings from a national survey suggest planners are increasingly open to these housing options.
A report uses an international benchmark of no more than 7% of disposable income spent on childcare to determine affordability. It finds childcare is unaffordable for 386,000 Australian families.
High rents and insecurity are constant sources of financial and emotional stress for low-income women. They describe what it’s like struggling to survive and being one step away from being homeless.
Older women have been the fastest-growing group of homeless people in recent years. New research shows about 240,000 women aged 55 or older and another 165,000 women aged 45-54 are at risk.
This former school site in Dallas, Melbourne, is one of many sites suitable for public housing that are being prepared for sale in areas with high housing need.
Roland Postma
Of 2,646 hectares of public land being prepared for sale in Victoria, 24 sites are suitable for building high-quality public housing in places of high need. Why isn’t the land being used for this?
Rental stress leaves hundreds of thousands of Australians struggling for years to cover all the other costs of living.
Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock
After paying rent, more than half of low-income tenants don’t have enough left over for other essentials. And the latest evidence shows nearly half of them are stuck in this situation for years.
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.
Labor’s so-called Rental Affordability Scheme did little to make those who most needed it, but it helped landlords.
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The government is being pressed to bring back a particularly ineffective and wasteful scheme.
The damaging effects of housing disadvantage on people’s mental health can persist even years after their housing situation improves.
Lovely Bird/Shutterstock
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.
Energy efficient social housing in Tasmania.
Xsquared, Hobart
Australia needs to build 730,000 more social housing units in 20 years.
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.
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.
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