Combatting homelessness, increasing affordable housing
Under international law, secure and adequate housing is a human right, essential for survival with dignity.
A home should be safe and affordable. Yet, on any given night, more than 122,000 Australians are homeless. Being homeless or experiencing housing stress is a denial of dignity and limits people’s life potential.
Every day we see the human face of housing stress and homelessness behind the statistics.
What we do
We help people by providing housing and accommodation options in each state and territory. These include short-term crisis accommodation, transitional housing, medium to longer-term community housing, accessible housing for people living with disability and specialist homelessness services.
What help do we provide?
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Advocacy
We advocate for improved housing accessibility. Housing is vital to wellbeing and is associated with better outcomes in health, education and employment, and economic and social participation. It helps reduce poverty and enhances equality of opportunity, social inclusion and mobility.
For the people we assist, the lack of pathways out of temporary housing stops them from getting on with their lives, looking for a job, studying and/or taking care of themselves or other family members.
Policies that improve housing affordability, security, safety and energy efficiency have been neglected for too long. Australia has one of the lowest levels of housing stock per adult in the developed world with just over 400 dwellings per 1,000 people.
We know that those most likely to experience homelessness or housing stress are people living in poverty – JobSeeker recipients, single parents, older people in the private rental market and people living with disability. Of nearly 46,000 rental listings sampled in 2022, only eight were affordable for a single person on Jobseeker, even after factoring in Commonwealth Rent Assistance and other available payments.
Many people are just one life event away from housing stress – losing a job, falling ill, being a carer, ending a relationship, being on a temporary visa or experiencing family and domestic violence.
We call for:
- A review of Commonwealth Rent Assistance and increase to the maximum rate by 25%
- Funding to implement the National Low Income Energy Productivity Program
- More private market incentives such as a replacement for the National Rental Affordability Scheme
- National minimum standards for renters and landlords
- A reduction in the capital gains tax discount from 50% to 37.5%
- A review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, as recommended by the Productivity Commission, to ensure it complements the new National Housing and Homelessness Plan
- The waiving of outstanding housing-related debts held by states and territories to the Australian Government ($2.5 billion at June 2020).
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Vinnies calls for more action to solve housing crisis
The St Vincent de Paul National Council has welcomed the commitments of national cabinet and the Commonwealth this week to address the housing and rental crisis.
From July 2024, the national cabinet has set a target of building 1.2 million new homes over five years. The Commonwealth has also committed to providing $3 billion in performance-based funding for states and territories. This will reward those who build more than their share of the new homes. The Housing Support Program, a $500 million competitive funding program for local and state governments, aims to boost housing supply.
National Cabinet has also agreed to “A Better Deal for Renters” which will develop a nationally consistent policy for genuine reasonable grounds for eviction, limiting rent increases to once a year, and phasing in minimum rental standards.
The St Vincent de Paul Society’s national president, Mark Gaetani, said the society “has advocated over a considerable time for ambitious targets for housing and for minimum rental standards”, with almost one-third of Australian households renting.
“We are encouraged that the national cabinet is addressing the issue of no-cause evictions and rental bidding and recognises the need to limit rent increases to once a year and introduce more uniform rental process and standards. These reforms are long overdue,” Mr Gaetani said.
“It is very encouraging to see that the national cabinet is making housing such a priority, although supply continues to be the biggest challenge.”
Mr Gaetani questioned why the Albanese Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund bill, which aims to address the severe shortage of social housing, continues to be stalled in the senate.
“The HAFF is not perfect, but it is a start. It would be great if all could agree to rental reforms, such as capping rent increases. But this should not hold up the HAFF. We urge all stakeholders to put aside political point scoring and pass the bill,” Mr Gaetani said.
FULL STORY
More action needed to tackle housing crisis (St Vincent de Paul Society)
