Amanda Winks, Chief Executive Officer, Housing Trust
Gandhi said, “the true measure of society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
These words repeat in my mind and resonate deeply as we hurtle into 2025, a quarter century milestone and federal election year. What kind of society do we want to live in, and how do we, both as individuals and collectively influence this?
There’s no question, the election is a hot topic – from breakfast broadcasts to backyard barbeques it’s a leading conversation, and it should be. In what’s widely now reflected as a crisis, the cost of living is identified by Australians as the number one issue as we head to the polls. This has got me thinking, and to be honest, feeling pretty low. Of all the issues and all the challenges, the cost of simply being alive and living is causing us distress.
In breaking down the major costs that count towards the cost of living, it really is just the basics – food, transport, health, utilities, taxes, and typically the biggest one, housing.
Globally, it’s widely accepted that paying thirty percent of household income to keep a roof over our head is affordable. Here in Australia, depending on your income having an affordable home is now almost impossible to achieve. Recent CoreLogic data shows housing affordability continues to decline across most of the country. As it currently stands, it takes just over half of a median household income to service a new mortgage and a record high thirty-three percent (33%) of median income to pay the median rent.
Circling back to Ghandi’s philosophy about how we treat our most vulnerable members, and we see recent analysis shows one in fifteen households with unmet housing need, meaning they are either homeless, living with significant overcrowding or paying more than thirty percent of income in rent. Without action this number will rise to nearly 1 million over the next fifteen years.
In grappling with these numbers, it’s easy to feel helpless, even hopeless. But one of the true strengths of our society, part of our fabric is the unwavering Australian spirit – the ability to put differences aside, roll up our sleeves and work side-by-side to get the job done. And here, in the true sense of the Australian way lies the path to solving the housing crisis.
Not for one moment do I wish to trivialise the scope and scale of the issues I’ve outlined above. It’s a complex problem cutting across different levels of Government and policy areas, and any decent effort to fix it will take time. For this very reason it requires two things.
First, bipartisan agreement and commitment to solving the housing crisis that goes beyond the three-year political cycle. A legislated national plan that paves the way for a consistent approach to solving the housing crisis regardless of who holds office. The good news is that this plan doesn’t need to start from scratch, nor does it need to be delivered by the Federal Government alone. In-fact it would be a crime not to realise the hard work that has already been done and is being done across all levels of Government, for purpose Community Housing Providers, and increasingly the private sector.
Second, a commitment to supercharge the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility to ensure we never reach the devastating milestone of 1 million households either homeless or in housing they can’t afford. This relies on an increase in capital investment from the current $10bn to $40bn to support delivery of at least 20,000 new social and affordable rental homes each year, reaching a target of 1 in 10 homes being social or affordable.
While I don’t underestimate the complexity, challenge and competing priorities of delivering a national budget, which currently exceeds $700 billion. I do know that protecting the great Australian dream of a safe, secure and affordable home, is right up there on the list of priorities – just as it is for any Australian household trying desperately to meet the weekly mortgage or rent payment. It’s also well supported by voters. Current research confirms that 73% of Australians say housing affordability will be very or somewhat important to their vote in the coming election and 84% agree that it is a fundamental government responsibility to ensure all Australians have safe and stable housing.
Having recently had the great joy of handing over keys to some of the first homes delivered with the help of the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility, I know the value of ensuring everyone in our society has access to a safe, secure and affordable home is nothing short of priceless.
