Housing Crisis Threatens Middle Australia
At least 650,000 new social homes are urgently needed as the nation's affordability crisis creeps towards middle Australia, St Vincent de Paul Society says. Vinnies' national council president Claire Victory believes the great Australian dream is fast moving beyond the reach of minimum income earners, placing pressure on a limited, overheated rental market. She says more than 116,000 people are sleeping rough across the country every night and with stagnated wages and real estate prices continuing to soar, the federal government needs to intervene as a matter of urgency. The call coincides with the launch of National Homelessness Week. Older women are now the fastest growing group of people facing homelessness. Those who don't own their own home and affected by domestic violence are particularly vulnerable. Of 74,000 rental listings in Anglicare's 2021 annual survey, only three were affordable for a person on Jobseeker and none for a person on Youth Allowance. At the same time, two thirds of 170,000 vulnerable private renters are currently in rental stress with less than $250 a week to live on after paying rent. Amid COVID lockdown in NSW, Mission Australia is meanwhile urging those experiencing homelessness to accurately record their living situation on Census night, August 10, so the severity of the issue is represented. Five years ago, the 2016 Census showed 116,427 people across the country were without a safe, secure place to sleep at night. However Mission Australia CEO James Toomey says contrary to perceptions, homelessness goes beyond those sleeping on the streets or in cars and rough sleepers only made up seven per cent of those counted.
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