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.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on housing stress
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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.
Why are some of the problems with housing stress and homelessness worse in New South Wales than in other states?
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.
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?
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.
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.
The government is being pressed to bring back a particularly ineffective and wasteful scheme.
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.
Australia needs to build 730,000 more social housing units in 20 years.
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.
Top contributors
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Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
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Associate Professor, Geography and Urban Studies, Western Sydney University
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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
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Professor of Urban Management & Planning, Griffith University
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Research Associate, Centre for People, Organisation and Work, RMIT University
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Research Fellow, Cities Research Institute, Griffith University
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Adjunct Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
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Professor, City Futures Research Centre, Faculty of the Built Environment, UNSW Sydney
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Program Director, Economic Policy, Grattan Institute
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Professor of Housing Research, University of Adelaide
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Professor of Sociology and Director of the Housing and Community Research Unit, University of Tasmania
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Senior Lecturer City Planning, UNSW Sydney
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Adjunct associate, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
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Senior Lecturer in Urbanism, University of Sydney
