A long-term plan to provide homes for all

Anglicare Australia reveals 20-year roadmap to affordable housing.

Anglicare Australia is calling on the government to undertake a series of urgent and long-term measures to stem a national crisis in housing, in what it says is a market that has never been less affordable or more volatile.

Nationally, in the three years to 2021, social housing waiting list numbers rose by 16 per cent to 164,000 households. Meanwhile, national peak body Homelessness Australia projects that at the current rate of growth, 165,817 households will experience homelessness in 2022, and this will grow to 220,690 households in 2032. 

In the lead-up to this year’s federal election in May, candidates from across the political spectrum agreed that housing supply is a critical issue. 

“To say that housing in Australia is broken is an understatement,” reads Anglicare’s 20-year roadmap to affordable housing entitled Homes For All. 

“It is in meltdown, and we won’t be able to truly fix it until we redesign our housing policies so that they work for everyone.”

The measures outlined in the report are: 

• a national plan to sustainably fund and maintain social housing (federal)
• reforming and raising Commonwealth Rent Assistance (federal)
• nationally consistent protections for renters (federal and states)
• trialling secure leasing models for mainstream tenancies (federal and states)
• incentives to maintain and invest in social housing (federal and states)
• requirements for new developments to include affordable housing (federal and states)
• a 10-year regime of tax and policy reform (federal)
• a 20-year program to expand social and affordable housing (federal).

The roadmap is aiming for 25,000 new units of social housing per year, to reach an overall target of 500,000 new homes. 

“A person on JobSeeker, the Disability Support Pension, or Youth Allowance can afford 0 per cent of rentals,” explains Kasy Chambers, executive director of Anglicare Australia, a network of organisations linked to the Anglican Church. 

“An age pensioner can afford less than one per cent. These numbers have been at rock bottom for the past 10 years.” 

Chambers says a key driver of this has been minimum wage, with affordability halving for those receiving the payment. 

“A couple with two parents working full-time can afford just 15 per cent of rentals, down from 31 per cent 10 years ago,” she says. 

“That includes rent assistance and tax benefits. This new federal government has a chance to stop this crisis from getting even worse – and to take action to make housing more affordable.”