As Australia faces its worst housing crises in decades, advocates have called on the federal parliament to tackle the issue as a matter of urgency.
Labor’s $10 billion housing future fund which would finance the construction of 30,000 affordable homes is hanging in the balance as negotiations continue in the upper house.
The key Labor election promise would establish the fund along with the independent Housing Australia body and a National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, which would provide independent advice on increasing housing supply.
But after the coalition confirmed it would not support the future fund, the government needs the votes of the Greens and two other crossbenchers.
The Greens are weighing up their position while ACT independent senator David Pocock won’t support the bill in its current form.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said the policy was inadequate, and did not address rent hikes.
“At the end of Labor’s plan, that waiting list for social affordable housing is going to be longer than it is at the start,” he told ABC radio.
“We are pushing them to address the scale of the rental crisis that we’re facing in this country and to step up and increase their offer.”
But peak housing and homelessness advocacy bodies have joined forces to call on the parliament to urgently pass the bills and start tackling the housing crisis.
Census data released last week showed there had been a five per cent increase in the number of Australians experiencing homelessness.
Analysts from the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW found 640,000 Australians are currently in housing stress.
By 2041, that number is expected to be one million.
National Shelter CEO Emma Greenhalgh said Australians were paying the price with plummeting housing vacancies and skyrocketing rents.
“We badly need government investment and intervention and time is of the essence,” she said.
“This is a national crisis, action cannot be deferred.”
The Greens are pushing for rents to be frozen for two years and one million new homes built to address the housing crisis in exchange for their support.
But Community Housing Industry Association CEO Wendy Hayhurst said the parliament needed to get moving on a housing policy, which could be strengthened in years to come.
She said the government’s future fund proposal was an important building block to start increasing supply of social and affordable housing.
Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin said a housing reset was desperately needed and the government’s proposal would kick-start a longer term response.
“We need the planning, co-ordination and financing in place to make sure this is the last housing crisis we face,” she said.
“It’s important that the Housing Australia Future Fund, Housing Australia and other key bodies get going now.”
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Association CEO Ivan Simon said the three pieces of legislation would start to address the challenge but more action would be needed.
He urged the government to explain how the housing needs of Indigenous Australians would be met long term.
“The extremely high levels of severe overcrowding in remote and non-remote communities continues to have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of our people,” he said.
– AAP
