To end homelessness we need a plan

In Australia, there are over 116,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Homelessness Week (August 1 to 7) aims to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness on Australia.

The theme for Homelessness Week 2022 is: To end homelessness we need a plan.

Everybody’s Home, a national campaign to fix the housing crisis, says that housing affordability affects every Australian and that if we don’t act now, nothing will change.

A new analysis of rental data by Everybody’s Home to coincide with Homelessness Week, reveals the NSW regions where renters are hardest hit by the toxic combination of surging increases and stagnant wages.

Up to 13.4 per cent increase a year

The three-year analysis cross-references SQM rental data with wage growth for workers in retail or health care and social assistance and rental increases. Workers in those occupations saw average wages increase only 2.3 per cent annually over three years, but over the three years leading up to 22 July, 2022, rents surged by up to 13 per cent in some areas

These areas rose by following average amounts each year.

South Coast 13.4 per cent $599.91
Central Tablelands 12.8 per cent $463.68
Murray Region 12.2 per cent $385.146
Riverina 10.8 per cent $389.10
North Coast 10.5 per cent $570.22
Broken Hill/Dubbo 10.1 per cent $384.69
Blue Mountains 9 per cent $545.03
Central Coast 8.9 per cent $594.03

Spiking rents and stagnant wages

Everybody’s Home national spokesperson, Kate Colvin, said the compounding impact of spiking rents and stagnant wages was smashing living standards and putting people at risk of homelessness. ‘We know that rental stress is the gateway to homelessness.

’When you combine surging rents with flat wages you put people in a financial vice. For the past three years that vice has been tightening.

Ms ‘Kolvin said homelessness providers are reporting stories of families with full-time breadwinners being forced to live in tents. ‘In a wealthy nation like Australia, this is nothing short of a national disgrace.

An opportunity for a reset

‘The recent change of Government represents an opportunity for a reset. For a decade construction of new social and affordable housing has withered. Now is the time to get moving and give people on low and modest incomes genuine choice.

‘Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese have been clear that public spending should expand the economy and improve productivity. Social housing meets those objectives better than almost anything.

‘There really is no better return on the taxpayer’s dollar than providing the homes Australian families need to be healthy, productive workers, and to raise their families with the stability and security of a decent home.’