Policy inaction, stagnant wages and an 80% increase in costs have locked families out of stable accommodation, analysis shows

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Housing costs alone are responsible for pushing a further 229,000 Australian children below the poverty line, a new analysis shows.

Researchers on Tuesday released the first longitudinal analysis of homelessness in Australia, showing the impact of stagnant wages and social security rates, inadequate social housing investment and increasing house prices.

The report confirms trends seen in the latest census data: rough sleeping is up by 20% in the five years to 2016, overall homelessness has spiked 14%, and demand for homelessness service has increase 22%.

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But the analysis – commissioned by Launch Housing and prepared by the universities of News South Wales and Queensland – goes deeper, seeking to understand the consequences of policy inaction.

It finds, among other things, that the costs of housing are driving up the poverty rate by 3.3% points, to 13.3%. The cost of housing causes an additional 613,000 people to fall below the poverty line, using 2013-14 figures. That includes 229,000 children.

Property prices have increased by 80% in the past decade, while median household income grew by 40%. Overcrowding has increased by 88%.

The report also finds Indigenous Australians are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness, and the number of older Australians (aged 55 to 74) experiencing homelessness has grown 55% in the decade to 2016.



Behind the numbers lie stories of heartache and trauma.

Kelly, who asked for her surname be withheld, fled her violent husband more than a decade ago, taking her one-year-old son with her.

You’ve got to prove you can afford it. Being a single mum, it’s almost impossible Kelly

She was able to manage for a time, scraping by on a parenting payment in private rentals in Melbourne. But in 2013 the goalposts for her parenting payment were suddenly changed and she found herself on Newstart, which was about $200 less.

Kelly could barely cope. She found herself falling behind on her rent and having to explain to the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal why she shouldn’t be evicted. Eventually, she was forced to leave. A friend put her and her then 11-year-old son up in a single bedroom. They spent several years there.

“I got really depressed. I stopped caring about everything,” she told Guardian Australia. “You can’t really make plans for your future or anything. It was just as long as I took care of my son and do the basics for him.”

The report finds that policy inaction on housing affordability has driven up homelessness. Tony Keenan, the chief executive of Launch Housing, described the situation as a “national disgrace”. Keenan said the data in the report, named the Australian Homelessness Monitor, should serve as a blueprint for action.

“Governments and decision makers have been stuck in a policy echo chamber,” he said. “There are tangible things that state and federal governments can do now to fix Australia’s housing crisis. We cannot go on shutting our doors.

Homelessness in Australia up 14% in five years, ABS says Read more

“The Australian Homelessness Monitor should inform the development of a national housing plan. We need more social and affordable rental homes, we must stop cutting income support to low income families and increase rent assistance.”

The report finds that Australia has experienced a 29% increase in spending on homelessness services but a 7% drop in social housing investment between 2011 and 2016. Social housing accounts for 4% of Australia’s total stock, compared with 14% in the UK.



For people like Kelly, the consequences of a lack of social housing are all too real. She has spent two years in transitional housing in Melbourne, waiting for something more permanent to become available. She is on the priority list.

She always imagined she would provide a nice, comfortable home for her son, who is now 15. That future is increasingly hard to grasp, she says. Not even a private rental is within her reach.

“You’ve got to prove you can afford it,” she said. “Being a single mum, it’s almost impossible to get a place. There were times when I pretended my mum was moving in with me, just to convince them I could afford it.”

