Page 1542 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
the cost of construction and any other costs for new and existing properties; and
(n) report back to the Assembly on all these matters by the last sitting day in June 2016.
I am pleased to bring this motion about housing affordability to the attention of the Assembly today because housing affordability is such an important issue for all Canberrans. Affordable housing is usually defined as housing for the second quintile of income earners, those who do not qualify for social or public housing but who struggle to afford market rental housing without being placed in housing stress.
There has been an abundance of recent research on housing affordability in both the federal and the local spheres. For example, a recent St Vincent de Paul report called The ache for home states:
Australia has a crisis in the supply of social and affordable housing. This is evidenced by the hundreds of thousands who are experiencing homelessness, on wait-lists for public housing, or living in severe housing stress. Taken together, the statistics tell us that across Australia there are over 105,000 people experiencing homelessness and 875,000 households experiencing housing stress.
Other recent research from a consortium comprising ACT Shelter, the ACT Council of Social Service, the Youth Coalition and the Women’s Centre for Health Matters found that 13 per cent of all ACT households faced housing stress, which equates to about 19,600 households in the ACT. So nearly 20,000 households in the ACT are facing housing stress.
The research found that about 6,600 households in the lowest 40 per cent of combined household income had found their rent or mortgage payments quite or very difficult to pay in the past three months. The research found that among those individuals and households reporting housing stress in Canberra, single-parent families were amongst those who were particularly over-represented. The research found that in the past 12 months in Canberra, of households in the bottom 40 per cent of household income, 7,000 households made compromises on food and household groceries. I will repeat that, Madam Deputy Speaker, because it is a very alarming statement: in that research, in the past 12 months in Canberra, of households in the bottom 40 per cent of household income, 7,000 households made compromises on food and household groceries. This is alarming, Madam Deputy Speaker, and clearly shows that the ACT is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis.
Anglicare Australia’s 2016 Rental affordability snapshot was released on 21 April 2016. It notes that the private rental market in Canberra is extremely unaffordable for people on a low income, such as the minimum wage or government benefits. Anglicare Australia’s snapshot showed that of the 1,497 affordable and appropriate properties in the ACT and Queanbeyan surveyed by Anglicare Australia, there were no properties available for a single parent on Newstart allowance with one child aged over eight.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video