Housing and homelessness

Under international law, secure and adequate housing is a human right, essential for human survival with dignity.  

This means a home should be safe and affordable. Yet, on any given night, 123,000 Australians are homeless. Being homeless or experiencing housing stress is a denial of dignity and limits people’s life potential. 

Every day we see the human face of housing stress and homelessness behind the statistics.

What we do

We help people by providing housing and accommodation options in each state and territory. These options include short-term crisis accommodation, transitional housing, medium to longer-term community housing, accessible housing for people living with disability and specialist homelessness services.

Advocacy

We also advocate for improved housing accessibility. This is because housing is vital to wellbeing and is associated with better outcomes in health, education and employment, and economic and social participation. It helps reduce poverty and enhances equality of opportunity, social inclusion and mobility.

For the people we assist, the lack of pathways out of temporary housing stops them from getting on with their lives, looking for a job, studying and/or taking care of themselves or other family members.

Policies that improve housing affordability, security, safety and energy efficiency have been neglected for too long. In the developed world, Australia has one of the lowest levels of housing stock per adult, with just over 400 dwellings per 1,000 people.

We know that those most likely to experience homelessness or housing stress are people living in poverty – JobSeeker recipients, single parents, older people in the rental market and people living with disability. Of nearly 46,000 rental listings sampled in 2022, only eight were affordable for a single person on Jobseeker, even after factoring in Commonwealth Rent Assistance and other available payments.  

And many people are just one life event away from housing stress – losing a job, falling ill, being a carer, ending a relationship, being on a temporary visa or experiencing family and domestic violence.  

We call for:  

• A review of Commonwealth Rent Assistance and increase to the maximum rate by 50%
• Funding to implement the National Low Income Energy Productivity Program
• More private market incentives such as a replacement for the National Rental Affordability Scheme
• National minimum standards for renters and landlords that include a wellbeing clause to better manage tenancy issues
• A reduction in the capital gains tax discount from 50% to 35%
• A review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, as recommended by the Productivity Commission
• The waiving of outstanding housing-related debts held by states and territories to the Australian Government.