Research shows social housing struggling to keep up with increasing demand

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

Waitlists for social housing grew in the four years to 2022, with the number of people being helped into homes falling, prompting a call for a reboot of the overburdened sector.
The combination, outlined in a report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, is worsening wait times for people facing acute housing stress, according to its authors.
'It's a painful and frustrating and horrible experience to go through, being on the waiting list,' lead author Chris Martin, of the University of New South Wales, said.
As well as interviewing existing tenants and people waiting for housing, the researchers reviewed national data compiled for a 2024 study in the same research series.
Based on state-by-state data, it showed more than 34,000 households across the country joined a waitlist in the roughly four years to 2022.
But lettings — or new social housing allocations — suffered a 6,400 drop over the same period.
Dr Martin said the data pointed to a long queue for supply so scarce it could disincentivise people from moving out of the system.
'What we currently have is a process of people applying for this scarce form of assistance — a social housing tenancy — and then other forms of band-assistance that are offered, like help with rental bonds in the private market,' he said.
'It would be a good time to start thinking in a formal and structured way, a strategic way, about reviewing the way access to housing assistance is done.'
One of the many people to have turned to social housing is Julie, who asked to use a pseudonym for professional reasons.
Julie lives with complex health needs and was spending about two-thirds of a disability support pension on an unsuitable private market rental when she made a bid for priority social housing access in March last year.
'There was a leak. It was damp, there were signs of mould. There were some steps in the building,' she said of the private market home.
She's still waiting for social housing to become available.
Initially, she said, her government housing provider lost part of her application and asked her to resubmit it so she could be added to the priority list.
When that happened, she said the application was incorrectly backdated, likely resulting in a longer wait.
In the meantime, she's had to find a new private rental after learning her landlord would sell.
'The system's literally designed to make you give up,' she said.
'There've just been so many hoops that I've been made to jump through.'
Sarah Toohey, of Community Housing Industry Association Victoria, said an underinvestment in social housing meant available homes were generally prioritised for people with complex needs.
She said this cohort often stayed in social housing for longer, resulting in less turnover and a slowdown in homes becoming available.
'At the moment, people put their name down, they don't hear very much and they wait upwards of 18 months to get a roof over their heads,' she said.
'In that time, we know that things that have led to their housing crisis can get worse.'
The study authors said the effects of decades of underinvestment in the social housing sector were gradually being reversed as state and federal governments looked to ease the housing crisis.
Dr Martin said the renewed focus on the sector posed an opportunity to deliver housing support differently.
'It may not always be about the golden ticket of a social housing tenancy, even though that's what a lot of people will rightly want and need,' he said.
His examples included additional assistance to very low-income households in the private market and a bigger focus on individual housing needs.
Queensland recently reported an average wait time of about 21 months for high-needs households moving into government-owned social housing.
In Victoria, priority households face a wait of about 18 months. The wait for a two-bedroom property in inner-city Sydney is 10 years or more.'We do need a more person-centred approach,' Ms Toohey said.
'We can integrate choice-based letting where people can search for their own social housing properties, or have a system whereby we check in on people on the list and see if there's any other housing assistance you can provide.'
Housing groups routinely call for governments to bring more social housing stock online. One recent report found Victoria alone would need an additional 377,000 homes to meet demand over the next two-and-a-half decades.
Nationwide, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has previously predicted more than 1.1 million social dwellings will be needed by 2037.