Community housing provider Home in Place is urging people to join its online campaign to pressure the Federal Government to increase funding to help address the housing crisis.
Home in Place is a not-for-profit housing provider which manages The Meeting Place in Tumbi Umbi, offering a variety of community services and activities to low-income households.
The organisation offers affordable housing at a reduced rent that’s capped at 75-80 per cent of the market rate and manages Housing Pathways, the system for applying for housing assistance in NSW.
Campaign spokesperson Martin Kennedy said that at present the Australian Government allocated 0.6 per cent of its annual budget to housing.
Home in Place is calling for that figure to be increased to at least two per cent.
“A lack of federal investment over many years was one of the main reasons a growing share of middle Australia was being pushed into housing stress and homelessness,” Kennedy said.
“In the 50s and 60s governments built about 15 per cent of all new homes.
“In the 70s and 80s they were still building 10 per cent of all new homes.
“These days, they build almost none.
“It may have taken several decades, but the catastrophic consequences of that policy shift are now in plain sight.
“Home ownership is now basically impossible for anyone without access to intergenerational wealth.
“Rents have surged by about 50 per cent in the past three years alone.
“Social housing’s share of total housing stock is at the lowest level on record.
“The result is that severe housing stress and even homelessness are now impacting middle income households as well as those on low incomes.
“The new faces of homelessness are everyday people from all parts of society.
“They are people who are doing everything they can to keep a roof over their head but finding that the housing crisis is making it impossible.
“If we don’t deal with this issue, the fabric of Australian society is going to be destroyed.”
“We are simply calling for a return to policies that have been proven to work,” he said.
“When the governments of the past wanted to increase home ownership, or give low-income people access to decent quality rentals at an affordable price, they didn’t rely on the private sector.
“They understood that they had to get involved in the business of building homes and offering them to the public at prices people could afford.
“There is no mystery to the current crisis.
“The real mystery is why, for all the hand-wringing about the demise of the Great Australian Dream, we continue to ignore the policies that made that dream possible in the first place.”
To learn more about the campaign, visit www.homeinplace.org/modern-homelessness/
Home in Place is one of Australia’s largest non-government community housing providers.
It provides tenancy and/or property management at almost 10,000 social, affordable and disability housing properties in Australia and New Zealand
Be the first to comment on "Campaign to increase government funding for housing"