Bradfield 2023: Housing threat to spirit of ‘fair go’

The housing crisis is endangering fairness and egalitarianism at the heart of Australian values. ‘If we can’t house nurses, police and teachers, we’re at risk of the city grinding to a halt,” a report reveals.

The housing affordability crisis is the worst in the nation’s history – so severe that failing to address it will undermine the sense of fairness and egalitarianism at the heart of Australian values as our cities grind to a halt.

So says the author of a major new report that finds a subsidised home needs to be built in Western Sydney every hour of every day between now and 2041 to meet surging demand for discounted accommodation, particularly among essential workers.

“We haven’t kept up with demand,” author of the research, Western Sydney University’s Tom Nance, told The Daily Telegraph. “We need to urgently boost supply.”

Mr Nance, who is the policy and strategy lead at the University’s Centre for Western Sydney, said 8500 new social and affordable dwellings must be constructed annually – up by 30 per cent from what was required five years ago.

“This is probably the sternest test we’ve faced as a nation in terms of not only housing affordability and more broadly housing supply,” Mr Nance said.

The housing crisis has never been worse. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

At stake were “the values within Australia that everyone should have a roof over their head,” he added.

“To put it simply, if we can’t house our key workers – nurses, police and teachers – we are at serious risk of the city grinding to a halt,” Mr Nance said, because of the economic, social and health effects.

With rents soaring, demand for affordable accommodation among key workers had grown rapidly, including people who had not been traditionally considered to be on low incomes, Mr Nance said.

Affordable housing has been defined as accommodation that is subsidised by 25 to 30 per cent. But huge increases in rents in the past two years have effectively gobbled that up that discount.

Social housing is where the rent is a set percentage of the tenant’s income – usually about a quarter. It is typically for people on very low incomes.

Mr Nance said he believed the solutions to the shortage in subsidised accommodation included public-private partnerships, leveraging other sources of investment and freeing up developers to build more subsidised accommodation.

Houses are selling, but regular Australians are being priced out. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

The federal government’s recently legislated Housing Australia Future Fund was a “key stepping stone,” he said. But its goal, nationally, is to produce just 6000 social and affordable rentals a year.

Lyall Gorman, CEO of community housing group Evolve, said too many families were being left behind, struggling to keep a roof over their heads as cost-of-living pressures skyrocketed. Mr Gorman urged more investment in social and affordable housing to help those most in need, particularly in Western Sydney.

The new Western Sydney University report, Home Truths, calls for a nationally agreed definition of affordable housing to create market certainty, along with clear targets and a focus on key workers.

The report finds that Western Sydney will accommodate about two-thirds of the city’s population growth over the next two decades. That is more than its fair share, which would be about 54 per cent, based on current population levels.