New research by the ACOSS/UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership shows renters on low and modest incomes are in the grip of a housing pincer, especially in regional Australia, as surging rents and the Commonwealth’s neglect of social and affordable housing creates acute stress. Read the media release here, or the full report here.
There is a housing affordability crisis in Australia, yet there is no Commonwealth Government strategy to address the growing numbers of people experiencing housing stress and homelessness. Homeownership is on the decline, fewer households are achieving mortgage-free homes before retirement, the private rental market cannot provide affordable homes for people living on low incomes, and our social housing system is not meeting the needs of our citizens. Inadequate social security payment levels, unemployment, and a poorly targeted and insufficient Commonwealth
A Joint statement from National Shelter, Community Housing Federation of Australia and Homelessness Australia - Australia’s housing and homelessness peaks- called on the Abbott Government to make good on their promise to be more consultative by restoring funding to the peak bodies who provide a voice for vulnerable Australians.
Joint statement by CHFA, Homelessness Australia and National Shelter on the decision by the federal government to withdraw fund - announced just before Christmas 2014
National Shelter's submission to the 2014 Senate Inquiry into Affordable Housing being undertaken by the Senate Standing Committee on Economics
In our submission on the Exposure Draft Social Security Legislation Amendment (Public Housing Tenants’ Support) Bill 2013, we express our lack of support for the introduction to the Housing Payment Deduction Scheme. While the scheme implements a recommendation of the Commonwealth Government’s white paper on homelessness, The road home, we think that it unnecessarily and unfairly targets a very small proportion of households. Additionally, National Shelter recommends that all levels of government fund further preventative and capacity-building measures
In our submission on the Exposure Draft Homelessness Bill 2012, we called for a right to adequate housing under Australian law — we think that the relevant commitments made in the international conventions listed in the Exposure Draft Bill should be transformed into rights created by legislation that can by asserted by citizens under Australian law. Our submission also covered issues such as the recognition of the specific needs and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Three roundtables on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) housing have been facilitated by National Shelter between 2010 and 2012. National Shelter has recommended that the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs fund a project to build trust between ATSI housing organisations and all levels of government to create a productive working relationship, and to support ATSI housing organisations to become registered in the new national regulatory system.
Key Recommendations - 2010-2012
This roundtable on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) housing on 25 May 2012 was the third facilitated by National Shelter since 2010. Through the course of the three roundtables there have been a number of common themes, including:
In our submission on Australian Bureau of Statistics review of the Counting the homeless methodology, we recommended that the proposed Counting the homeless methodology should only be introduced at such time as the assumptions of the Australian Bureau of Statistics can be proven accurate and correct, and endorsed by the housing and homelessness sector and experts in the field. We called for the ABS to focus on improving their ability to capture information on significantly under-reported segments of the