Housing and homelessness

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

A home should be safe and affordable. Yet, on any given night, more than 122,000 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 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 advocate for improved housing accessibility. 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. Australia has one of the lowest levels of housing stock per adult in the developed world with just over 400 dwellings per 1,000 people. 

Those most likely to experience homelessness or housing stress are JobSeeker recipients, single parents, older people in the private rental market, people experiencing or at risk of family and domestic violence and people living with disability. A single person on JobSeeker cannot afford to rent anywhere in Australia. A couple working full time on the minimum wage faces unaffordable to moderately unaffordable rents across most metropolitan areas.   

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:  

• Housing to be recognised as a human right and the National Housing and Homelessness Plan to be legislated.
• A doubling of the Housing Australia Future Fund.
• Taxation reform to incentivise the use of long-term vacant residential properties and land.
• Increased needs-based funding of homelessness service including support services. 
• Continued increased funding of Commonwealth Rent Assistance and a review of the program.
• Funding and policies that improve energy efficiency in low-income households in the transition towards net zero emissions.
• More private market and institutional incentives to increase affordable housing.
• Resources to implement the national minimum standards for renters (A better deal for renters).
• A reduction in the capital gains tax discount from 50% to 37.5%.

Housing and Homelessness Policy Paper

Housing and Homelessness Information Sheet