Western Sydney’s hidden housing crisis revealed

One in ten households across ten major suburbs in Western Sydney is suffering from acute housing stress, startling new data has revealed. See the figures and how your suburb looks here.

Western Sydney is in housing crisis with one in ten households across ten major suburbs suffering from acute housing stress, shock new research reveals, with one single mum telling The Daily Telegraph her family is just months away from homelessness.

The crisis is at its worst in the southwest, with almost 18 per cent of households in Fairfield and more than 15 per cent in Bankstown on the brink.

In just the four suburbs of Fairfield, Bankstown, Auburn and Cabramatta alone almost 20,000 households are in extreme housing stress, close to homelessness, overcrowded or with unaffordable rents.

In Parramatta, the demographic heart of Sydney, 4,800 households are struggling — exactly one in ten — while in Labor leader Chris Minns’ own electorate of Kogarah 9.5 per cent of households are under stress.

The research, commissioned by the Community Housing Industry Association and exclusively obtained by The Daily Telegraph, has calculated the numbers of families and other homes in severe housing stress by state electorate, with housing affordability shaping up to be the number one issue at the March state election.

The data from the UNSW City Futures Research Centre reveals the number of households with what is defined as “unmet need”, which includes homelessness, overcrowding or being forced to spend more than 30 per cent of income on rent.

Single mum Hassinah Dadyar is a mother of two boys, aged nine and eleven, who all live in a two bedroom unit at Rosehill.

Hassinah Dadyar and her sons Sami and Osman in their Rosehill apartment. Picture: Julian Andrews

Her unit was earmarked as affordable housing when she moved from Parramatta last year but the scheme is now expiring and the whole block is being sold, meaning her flat will go back to market rent in May.

As a result her current rent of $386 per week will skyrocket to $560 per week.

Ms Dadyar, who also cares for her elderly wheelchair-bound mother in South Granville, earns just $800 a week on her carer’s pension.

The new rent would eat up almost three quarters of her income and she and her children would simply be unable to survive on the remainder.

The Community Housing Industry Association says there are more than 18,000 people living in housing criss in southwestern Sydney.

“I’m going to be homeless,” she told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday.

“I’ll have to move from here. I can’t afford that much.”

Ms Dadyar has tried to explain the situation to her two young boys and is essentially hoping for a miracle.

“May is going to come soon,” she said. “I’m extremely worried.”

The Community Housing Industry Association said there were tens of thousands of families in a similar situation to Ms Dadyar with a sharp divide between Western and South West Sydney and more affluent areas.

“This data reveals the social fragmentation of Sydney,” CHIA NSW CEO Mark Degotardi told the Telegraph.

“Your postcode should not determine whether you live in housing crisis.

“There are 18,600 people in Southwestern Sydney living in housing crisis. The scale of this housing emergency is just enormous, and it deserves an urgent response from the State Government to address it.

“This is a wakeup call to the incoming NSW Government – you cannot continue to sit idly by while tens of thousands of everyday families and individuals struggle to find or keep their home.”

Originally published as Western Sydney’s hidden housing crisis revealed