Services overwhelmed as 3 million at risk of becoming unhoused, says Homelessness Australia report   


Mon 18 Nov
ABC News


In short:
Three million Australians are "at risk" of homelessness due to increasing rental stress and low incomes, a Homelessness Australia report has found.

It is a 63 per cent increase in the number of people at risk in 2016, and service providers say they are having to shut their doors to new clients due to poor resourcing.

What's next?
It comes as the government weighs a last-minute offer from the Greens to pass two key pieces of legislation is says will improve the housing crisis.


The rising cost of living and rates of rental stress have left about three million Australians at risk of homelessness, a more than 60 per cent increase since 2016, a new report by Homelessness Australia has found.

Homelessness Australia has commissioned modelling of the number of Australians struggling with complicating factors such as low income, rental stress or low social resources, and says people with two or more of those factors are 'at risk' of becoming homeless.

The group's CEO Kate Colvin will launch the report at Parliament House in Canberra today, where she will criticise governments for underfunding service providers experiencing unprecedented pressure.

"Demand for homelessness services has erupted and the system is so under-resourced that people who are homeless can't get in front of a worker who can help them," she told the ABC.

"People who could have afforded private rentals just a few years ago are now resorting to couch surfing, sleeping in cars or pitching a tent."


Homelessness Australia chief executive Kate Colvin said people who had been able to afford private rentals a few years ago were now resorting to sleeping rough.

The Impact Economics modelling estimates that between 2016 and 2022, the number of Australians at risk of homelessness increased by 63 per cent, representing between 2.7 and 3.2 million people.

Ms Colvin said the number today was likely to be even higher.

Victoria and Queensland the fastest growers
A state-by-state breakdown found Victoria and Queensland had seen the greatest growth in people at risk of homelessness, due to rental stress.

In Victoria, 987,405 people were at risk of losing their home, the report found, after the state saw a 23.1 per cent increase in rental stress.

The ACT was the only state to see a decrease in homelessness risk.

Homelessness Australia also surveyed its members as part of the report.

Pregnant mother scared by housing unaffordability

This is the first time Nicky will be welcoming a baby without a stable roof over her head.

The vast majority reported leaving phone calls unanswered, while 40 per cent were at times having to close their doors to allow time to deal with the clients already waiting inside.

Impact Economics found homelessness service providers were helping about the same number of people each year, but the figures did not show the number of people being turned away because of a lack of staff and resourcing.

Sydney woman Rachael Natoli, who runs domestic violence service provider the Lokahi Foundation, receives no government funding, and is relying on a private benefactor to help her service her three-month-long waitlist.

"It really pisses me off. It infuriates me," she said.

"I feel like the government, both state and federal, aren't taking this matter seriously enough.   

"They keep talking about what they're doing, but we're not seeing that funding come through to frontline services."

Ms Colvin acknowledged the Albanese government's increase investment in social housing, but said those homes would take some time to be built and there was still a shortfall of 640,000 social homes.

Housing bills stuck in Senate, with new Greens offer on table
The report lands as the Albanese government struggles to get support to pass two key housing bills, dismissing a last minute offer from the Greens as more about politics than progress.

Greens make new offer to pass Labor's key housing bills, but deal still looks unlikely
Photo shows Max Chandler-Mather speaks while standing in front of the budget tree at parliament house
Government sources have criticised the Greens' late appeal for a compromise on the housing bills, arguing the process of having amendments costed, drafted and approved can take months.

Labor is entering the final two parliamentary sitting weeks of the year with its Help to Buy bill and Build to Rent bill bogged.

Help to Buy would see the government co-purchase houses with 40,000 first home buyers on low incomes, but has been criticised by the Greens for being small-target policy.

After voting against it for several months, last week the Greens offered their support of Help to Buy if Labor promised to immediately fund more homes.

thegreatdivide wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2024 at 10:47am:




Hobby Horse - $10 at Big W.
Free returns

thegreatdivide wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2024 at 5:13pm:


How is that not going to drive up rental prices? People with more money will always outbid those earning less. Housing is a scarce commodity, there are more people looking for housing than there is available. What's to stop people renting $5000@week housing while earning $600@week and expecting the govt to pay to pay the other $4,800? The only thing that will fix housing is building more housing and stopping the flood of immigrants.

Setanta wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2024 at 5:40pm:


You're forgetting no. 3; the rapid increase in government housing (as house construction in the private-sector  market is it temporarily closed), will reduce demand in the  expensive private rental market.

You're probably still blinded by mainstream 'small government'/low-tax/low spending/balanced government budget ideology, not to mention 'invisible hand' free market ideology.

"Markets are good servants, but bad masters, and worse religions": Amory Lovins.

And there's the  Conservative fire-brand Rush Limbaugh who finally 'saw the light',  when Trump was first elected....: "everyone knows government deficts don't matter" (google it, it's a hoot to see a Conservative change from being a fiscal hawk, to enable Trump to cut taxes on the rich, damn the deficit).

Quote:


See above. Current renters on the median wage or less will immediately gain relief (in my 4-point plan), and the ability for landlords to raise rents will begin to dissipate - and soon disappear -  as the first public housing appears on the market.

And as for housing being a 'scarce commodity' - that's just part of mainstream neoclassical 'scarcity' dogma: 

Oz COULD build sufficient housing in a year (or the time it takes to build houses - I built mine in a year), by placing the entire  industry in public hands as outlined, to ensure everyone is comfortably housed, whether in public or private housing.

And this time (after all this is achieved), DONT abandon public housing ever again.  Private sector greed will  always result in market failure, in housing.


Now .....can Frank come to the rescue.....?