Covid-hit small business owners a homeless risk

Family small business owners who have lost their livelihoods in the Covid-19 pandemic are a growing cohort of those seeking homelessness services, advocates warn.

Homelessness Australia chair Jenny Smith.

Family small business owners who have lost their livelihoods in the Covid-19 pandemic are a growing cohort of those seeking homelessness services, advocates warn.

And up to 650,000 more social housing options are needed to cater for the growing demand, they say, with single mothers and their children fleeing family violence a particular concern.

Homelessness Australia chair Jenny Smith said rising house prices and rents were putting pressure on those needing housing, an issue exacerbated by federal government funding cuts.

“Increasingly we are seeing mum and dad middle Australians whose small business has not survived (the pandemic) coming to us absolutely shocked at the dearth of housing options available to them,” Ms Smith said. Rising house prices and rents over the past decade have pushed more and more Australians out of housing and into homelessness.

“Federal government cuts ... have made it harder for people to get into safe and secure housing they can afford when they are pushed out of the rental market,” she said.

Annual federal funding to social and Indigenous housing and homelessness in 2013 was $2bn, which if indexed for inflation and population growth would now be $2.7bn, Ms Smith said.

The actual figure is now $1.6bn.

St Vincent de Paul Society national president Claire Victory said “at least 650,000 additional social and affordable homes are needed right now”, with the hot property market putting homes out of reach almost for minimum income earners.