AUSTRALIA needs to build 750,000 social homes over the next two decades if it is to go some way to addressing the national housing crisis, according to the final People’s Commission’s report, and the federal government will need to end investor tax concessions and coordinate national rental reform to halt the crisis affecting more people up the income ladder.
Convened by Everybody’s Home, the People’s Commission report is based on the submissions and testimony of more than 1,500 Australians who voiced their experiences of the housing crisis and the action they want government to take, and which laid bare distressing experiences of people staying in unsafe relationships, skipping meals, living with toxic mould, working “insane” hours, or moving away from loved ones in order to keep a roof over their heads.
“What this report tells us is that Australia’s housing crisis has really been climbing the income ladder,” Everybody’s Homes spokesperson Maiy Azize told Australian Property Journal.
“We’ve known for a long time that people on middle to low incomes are really struggling to find a place that they can afford. But what this report is really showing is that people from all walks of life are really struggling to find a place that they can afford.
“You have to be a pretty wealthy person in Australia to avoid housing stress.”
The report found that people who are renting – even those on good incomes – are especially struggling as they can’t predict what their next rent increase is going to be.
“And sometimes it’s absolutely huge and totally outrageous. We’re hearing that people are having to move really regularly. I think that was one of the things that probably surprised me and also our commissioners, in terms of the consistency of feedback that we got about that in the submissions and the hearings, that people say that they were moving basically every single year.
“So what we’re seeing really is a crisis that’s engulfing absolutely everybody.”
The People’s Commission’s report unveiled new data from a survey of more than 120 frontline organisations ranking the top impacts of the housing crisis on clients, and which found nine in ten ranked stress or mental-ill health as one of the biggest impacts.
Three in four nominated homelessness – there are 122,000 people experiencing homelessness in Australia on any given night – while nearly three in five said forgoing meals, medication or other essential services, two in five said disconnection from family or community, and one in three said the inability to leave an unsafe home environment.
Commissioner Doug Cameron, former Labor Senator and Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Homelessness, said, “The federal government must step up and change course based on the overwhelming evidence that the status quo will not solve the crisis”.
“I applaud the fact that the new Housing Minister expresses enthusiasm to tackle the housing crisis, however it’s troubling that failed ‘market solutions’ such as investor tax breaks continue to take precedence over increased funding for social housing,” he said.
The People’s Commission recommended the federal government create at least 750,000 social homes within two decades, end investor tax concessions, and coordinate strong national rental reform.
Other recommendations include expanding social housing eligibility, recognising housing as a human right, raising the rate of working age payments, additional funding for crisis housing services, and improving productivity in home building by increasing the capacity of the modular housing industry.
Last month saw official start of national cabinet’s Housing Australia Future Fund, which targets the delivery of 20,000 social homes and 10,000 affordable homes over five years. It will run concurrently with the National Housing Accord, targeting 1.2 million market homes.
Azize said to Australian Property Journal the social housing target is “nowhere near enough”.
“It doesn’t actually even replace the number of social homes that are coming offline in the same period. So it’s nowhere near enough to meet what we know the shortfall is at the moment of 640,000 homes.”
“There’s no reason why these homes can’t come out of that 1.2 million National Housing Accord home target. If you can build 1.2 million homes in the private for-profit sector, you can build social housing.”
“No government” is doing enough on social housing supply, Azize said, and the “obvious place” where state governments could be doing more is on rental reform, including limiting unfair rent increases, making it more difficult for people to get evicted, and offering longer term leases and more protections for renters.
“The thing that the federal government could do tomorrow that would make a really big impact for people is to co-ordinate some kind of rental reform – something to limit rent increases,” Azize said.
“That is something that would make a difference to people tomorrow.”
The report recommended phasing out the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing deductions over 10 years.
Azize said Everybody’s Home is “optimistic” the federal government could make any serious moves.
“We have a new minister and she has certainly been out there saying that she knows that this is a critical issue,” she said.
