Transcript Slide 1

ACTCOSS
Community Sector Futures
Housing & Homelessness: Chronic, Critical or
Curable?
Adrian Pisarski National Shelter
Why is there a problem?
It’s been happening since the 70’s and it is not
cyclical! It’s not individual. It’s structural!!!!!!!!
Will it get better or worse?
Thanks to Judy
Yates et al Source:
NRV3, RP11
Projected incidence of housing stress:
25% increase in incidence of stress for
lower income households
Why structural?
Judy Yates Sydney Uni has estimated approx $28b annually in Commonwealth assistance to housing overall
through tax breaks.
CSHA now less than $1b due to an obsession with home ownership at the expense of public and community
CRA approx $2b and blowing out by an ideological commitment to consumer power rather than good planning
Remainder goes to home owners and investors through FHOG, Capital Gains Tax exemptions (100% owners
50% Investors), Neg gearing, other tax exemptions (Non Taxation of Imputed Rents)
What’s worse is we provide most assistance through CGTE to older owners at the end of their housing career
and when they least need the assistance.
Julian Disney has labelled this as both upside down and back to front. In fact young people trying desperately to
enter the market demonstrably subsidise everybody else.
To put that another way... for most of
the past 12 years...
Who is most affected?
•
•
Results of NATSEM modelling of housing stress (as at December 2007)
•
•
•
•
Key points
Low Income Families
1.1 million families, 10.4 per cent of all families
575,000 are families with children, including 260,000 sole parent
families
Total Number of Households in Housing Stress
Number
% of renter & mortgage
households
NSW
VIC
QLD
SA
WA
TAS
ACT
AUSTRALIA
224,256
112,700
140,735
25,261
29,015
6,227
6,053
547,000
27.0%
18.4%
26.8%
12.9%
11.8%
10.2%
6.7%
22.0%
Stress by household compared to
renters
Total Number of Households in Housing Stress
Number
% of renter &
mortgage
households
NSW
224,256
VIC
112,700
QLD
140,735
SA
25,261
WA
29,015
TAS
6,227
ACT
6,053
27.0%
18.4%
26.8%
12.9%
11.8%
10.2%
6.7%
AUSTRALIA
547,000
22.0%
Number of Renters in Housing Stress*
Year
NSW
Current
2007-08
% of renters
2008-09
% of renters
2009-10
% of renters
VIC
QLD
SA
WA
TAS
ACT
AUSTRALIA
100,000
61,000
85,000
15,000
16,000
3,000
3,884
286,000
115,275
72,200
92,808
19,627
19,267
3,620
4,248
329,359
14.3%
12.0%
17.9%
10.3%
7.9%
6.0%
10.2%
13.5%
122,085
77,889
102,363
22,157
23,441
5,095
4,221
359,550
15.0%
12.8%
19.5%
11.5%
9.6%
8.4%
11.1%
14.6%
134,271
84,924
112,071
24,274
27,025
6,001
4,432
394,471
16.2%
13.8%
21.1%
12.4%
10.9%
8.5%
10.9%
15.8%
*Based on rents increasing by 6% per annum over 2007-08 to 2009-10
Source: National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling; HIA
Housing stress by household type and
age
Housing stress by housing type
685,000 private renting families with low incomes are spending more than 30
% of Income or 22.8 per cent of all private renting families
283,000 low income families are spending more than 30 % of their income to
pay off their mortgages – Or 10.5 % of all families with a mortgage
Housing stress by age
120,000 low income families headed by someone aged under 20 years old are
spending more than 30 % of their income on housing costs – this is 21.2 % of
all families headed by someone aged under 20 years old
220,000 families headed by someone aged between 21 and 29 years old are
spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs – this is one 13.9 %
of all families headed by someone aged under 29 years old
And amongst all that it is Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander households who suffer the
greatest housing stress!
Homelessness and Housing
• 100,000 homeless on any given night
• Massive unmet need.
• On any night 450 people are turned away by SAAP
providers around Australia because they can’t accommodate
them.
•Increasingly younger people, mainly female between the
ages of 15 and 19 and younger children. Broken down, this
represents one in every 57 girls (2%) in that age bracket in
Australia who accessed SAAP services in 2005/6. Equally
children in the 0-4 age bracket had the same statistics of one in
every 57 accessing a SAAP program with a parent or guardian
in the same period. (Homelessness Australia)
•SAAP is also overrepresented by Indigenous people and in
most states there is no vacancies for Refugees and people
Is it Structural?
(Chronic, Crisis curable?)
•Homelessness Australia says Homelessness can be the
result of poverty, unemployment and a lack of affordable
housing. Domestic violence is the single biggest cause of
homelessness in Australia.
•Homelessness can also be triggered by family breakdown,
mental illness, sexual assault, alcohol and other drug use,
financial difficulty, gambling and social isolation.
•NDCA data cites DV (22%), relationship breakdown (10%)
and other - financial difficulty(9%) as the three main
reasons for seeking assistance.
BUT What does the data collect?
6 Presenting reasons for seeking assistance
please tick as many circles as apply
time out from family/other situation 2
Interpersonal relationships
relationship/family breakdown 3
interpersonal conflict 4
sexual abuse 7
domestic/family violence 6
physical/emotional abuse 5
gambling 20
Financial
budgeting problems 23
rent too high 24
other financial difficulty 21
overcrowding issues 27
Accommodation
eviction/asked to leave 25
emergency accommodation ended 11
previous accommodation ended 26
other health issues 29
Health
mental health issues 28
problematic drug/alcohol/substance use 10
psychiatric illness 13
recently left institution 12
Other reasons
recent arrival to area with no means of support 14
itinerant 15
other (please specify) 999
don’t know/no information 0
7 Main presenting reason for seeking assistance
eg 0 2 7
Where are we now?
•There are at least 600,000 families and singles in the private rental market in
housing stress. This represents 65% of low income private renters.
•Approximately 180,000 households are on public rental housing waiting lists.
Eligibility is extremely limited, with access restricted to the most severely
disadvantaged.
•The supply of public housing has declined by approximately 30,000 dwellings
between 1996 and 2006 from 372,000 to 341,000 dwellings.
•Commonwealth funding for public and non-profit housing has fallen by around 30%
in real terms since 1996.
•More than 32% of households receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance still pay
more than 30% of income on rent.
•There is a national shortage in the annual supply of new housing per year of more
than 30,000 dwellings; and
•More than 100,000 people experience homelessness on any night.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Australia’s Welfare 2007 at 219.
AHURI, ‘Housing Affordability: a 21st century problem’, National Research Venture 3: Housing Affordability for Lower Income Australians, by
Judith Yates and Vivienne Milligan et al, September 2007 at 19.
What are Uncle Kevin and Cousin Tanya up to?
• A New National Affordable Housing Agreement NAHA or if HA have their way a
NAHAHA to include:
• CSHA or public and community housing (????? Currently approx $890m)
• Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) (approx $2b p.a. and growing )
• National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) ($1.2b over 10 years)
• Housing Affordability Fund (HAF) ($512m)
• First Home Savers Scheme
• FHOG (administered by the states)
• A Place to call home (150 houses)
• SAAP
NAHAHA and the National Reform
Agenda
• NAHA is part of NRA
•
•
•
•
•
Reduction of SPP’s from some 80 to 6 or 7
NAHA is just one
Child Protection
Indigenous Affairs
Mental Health
What are the issues?
• Look at the context of rental affordability as the
major indicator and solution.
• $3.5b lost from public housing funding since
96/97, stock losses
• State and Territory Debts (in ACT some 95% of all
CSHA funding is returned as debt repayments)
• Operating costs vs building supply
• State contributions (Additional funds from Qld,
Vic, W.A., Tas, NSW)
What are our solutions?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A Growth Target should be established involving an increase in the stock of public
and non-profit housing by 30,000 additional dwellings by 2012.
An Affordable Housing Growth Fund should be established with funding of at least
$3.5b over the next 3 years strictly ear-marked for expanding the stock of public
and non-profit housing, contributed on a matching basis by the Commonwealth
and the States/Territories.
An Operating Subsidy Program should be established, provided by the
Commonwealth. (could be done paying CRA to state authorities as an operating
subsidy)
New well located stock should meet standards relating to dwelling quality,
disability accessibility and energy efficiency.
Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) should be reviewed to ensure that it best
meets the needs of all low income renters. As a first step, the maximum rate of
CRA should be increased by 30% for low income households currently receiving
the highest rate of CRA.
Join the campaign of ACOSS, Nat Shelter, CHA, H.A. and others to lobby for
increases
And Remember