ACCORDING to two reports issued this past week, Australia is on the brink of a social housing timebomb with the input of Federal Government funding.
The country faces a looming shortfall of almost 200,000 homes by 2031 unless investment is introduced now.
A report by Compass Housing Services finds State Governments have limited capacity to house the people on their respective waiting lists and no capacity to cater for future demand.
Report lead-author Professor David Adamson said despite good intentions the states had lost control of the issue and the problem was now too big for them to handle with 196,000 new social housing units needed by 2031.
“There are approximately 169,000 households on social housing waiting lists across Australia and under the current system most of them will never be allocated a property,” he said.
New data from Corelogic also shows there has been no letup in the continued growth in house and rent prices, pushing thousands of Australians to the brink of homelessness and housing stress.
Everybody’s Home national spokesperson, Kate Colvin, said federal intervention was urgent.
“The Federal-State blame game is arid and gets us nowhere. A ballooning number of Australians on low and middle incomes simply cannot compete for housing in the booming private sales and rental market.
The report calls on the Commonwealth to take the lead on a national partnership between all levels of government, community housing organisations, and the private sector.
