Australian governments are facing calls to abolish investor tax concessions and reform rental markets at a national level after a people-led inquiry into the country’s housing crisis.
A former Labor senator and parliamentary secretary for housing and homelessness is among those warning tenants today are “paying the price for market failure” and “decades of under investment by government”, after homelessness advocacy groups convened their own inquiry into rental woes due to a lack of action from politically-arranged ones.
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The People’s Commission report, from homelessness organisation Everybody’s Home, surveyed more than 1500 Australians including essential workers couch-surfing on the edge of homelessness, would-be retirees who had been forced to continue seeking work and people with a disability being unable to find a home to meet their needs.
It has recommended 750,000 new social homes be built by the federal government in the next 20 years, singling out new housing minister Clare O’Neil to take action on their calls.
Australia is trying to deal with a growing homelessness crisis. Picture: iStock
Report commissioner Doug Cameron, an ex-Labor senator and the parliamentary secretary for housing and homelessness, said they had heard from hundreds of Australians “paying the price for market failure” and “decades of under investment by government”.
“Without ambitious action and increased funding for social housing, we risk becoming a more divided country,” Mr Cameron said.
Everybody’s Home spokeswoman Maiy Azize said there too many Australians forced to stay in “unsafe relationships”, skipping meals, living with toxic mould or working “insane hours” to keep a roof over their head.
Ms Azize said the report showed voters “expect the government to step up on housing”.
“It has shown that the human suffering of the housing crisis is a consequence of governments shifting their responsibility of delivering this essential infrastructure onto the private market,” she said.
Another commissioner and University of Sydney housing expert, Professor Nicole Gurran, said the testimony they had heard was “distressing” and it was now clear an “over reliance on the private market has not and will not deliver the magnitude of affordable, secure housing that Australia needs”.
The People’s Commission inquiry was held earlier this year, and is now recommending changes ahead of next year’s federal election.
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nathan.mawby@news.com.au
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