PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese announced the Commonwealth will provide a one-off $2 billion funding to the states and territories within the next two weeks to deliver new social and community housing.
The PM said the Social Housing Accelerator payment will create thousands of homes for Australians on social housing waiting lists and will increase housing supply sooner, with all funding to be committed by states and territories within two years ending 30 June 2025.
Under the agreement, the states and territories will have some flexibility in how they permanently boost social housing stock, including new builds, expanding programs, renovating or refurbishing existing but uninhabitable stock.
“Every Australian deserves the security of a roof over their head, and my Government is taking steps to deliver more homes around the country.
“I met with every Premier and Chief Minister about this proposal yesterday, and we all agree securing more housing for more Australians is a key national priority. This is new money, right now, for thousands of new homes and complements our ambitious housing agenda,” said Albanese.
Every state and territory will receive a minimum of $50 million with the remainder allocated on a per capita basis.
| State | Funding |
| New South Wales | $610 million |
| Victoria | $496 million |
| Queensland | $398 million |
| Western Australia | $209 million |
| South Australia | $135 million |
| Tasmania | $50 million |
| Northern Territory | $50 million |
| Australian Capital Territory | $50 million |
Housing Minister Julie Collins said this funding adds to the government’s ambitious housing agenda.
“We know that supply is an important part of addressing the housing challenges we inherited from the former Liberal government. This funding will help build more of the rental homes that Australia needs,”
Collins is calling on the Greens to pass the bill in the Senate.
“We could do even more if the Senate stopped blocking our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund – the single biggest investment in social and affordable rental housing by a Federal Government in more than a decade,” said Collins.
Greens leader Adam Brandt responded to the investment and said “This is a big development. Labor has caved to Greens pressure and found an extra $2 billion for housing funding.
“To everyone who backed us in and demanded Labor go further on housing: remember today.
What Labor said was impossible yesterday, they’ve done today. This is what happens when the community backs the Greens to negotiate and fight in balance of power,” Bandt added.
The additional investment comes as homelessness increases across the nation, as the cost of living, rising rents and low vacancy rates place further pressure on Australians.
A decade of inaction by governments has seen the social housing waiting list balloon. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, social housing declined as a proportion of overall housing stock from 4.8% in 2012 and 4.6% in 2014 to 4.2% last year. Over the same period, the number of “greatest need households on waiting list” increased more than one-third from 43,224 to 67,656.
The net increase in social housing was less than 1%, up from 436,333 to 440,192. The waiting list across Australia rose by more than 8,000 households last year, from 155,141 to 163,508. Most of the increase was among households considered “in greatest need”.
A report by researchers at the UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre found homelessness in Queensland surged by 22% between 2017 and 2022, and that 220,000 social and affordable dwellings would need to be constructed over the next two decades to meet demand.
According to the Council to Homeless Persons, Victoria’s homelessness services are currently placing over 4,000 individuals and families in hotels and crisis accommodation each month, as the state and the country at large grapple with the ongoing housing crisis.
Meanwhile the latest Mission Australia report A Safe Place to Call Home – Mission Australia’s Homelessness and Stable Housing Impact Report 2023 reveals that demand is rising for the charity’s homelessness and housing services.
The report shows a 26% increase in demand for Mission Australia’s homelessness services over the past three years, and a 50% increase in people who are seeking help after they’ve become homeless rather than when they are at risk.
Meanwhile a new report by Housing All Australians (HAA) Give Me Shelter: Leave No Veteran Behind, found the cost of homelessness among veterans of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is estimated to cost $4.6 billion over 30 years.
The report revealed that nearly 6,000 or 5.3% of the country’s half a million current or former service people were experiencing homelessness over the past year, compared to 1.9% of the broader Australian population.
