Coronavirus recession risks homelessness on a 'scale unseen' before
The Age
August 31, 2020
Homelessness in Australia had spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and might reach unprecedented levels in a deep recession, according to community groups calling for a multibillion-dollar social housing building program that would also stimulate the economy.
Peak body Homelessness Australia says the severity of the recession's impact on the vulnerable will hinge on the federal government's intervention. It said support services were already "inundated" as surging unemployment and family violence took a toll on people's living arrangements.
Homelessness has spiked during the COVID-19 crisis.
In its submission to the government ahead of the federal budget in October, the homelessness organisation says the COVID-19 crisis has caused a surge in people seeking assistance and losing their homes because their lives have been disrupted.
"This has inundated a service system that has never before had so many people in desperate need of help at the same time," the organisation says.
"Even with significant increases in state/territory government resourcing for crisis accommodation and other homeless services, increased demand from people experiencing homelessness for the first time has exceeded capacity to respond across the nation."
Without a strong response from the government, including social housing options and adequate income support, there may be "homelessness on a scale unseen in Australia", the group says.
Backing an immediate surge in government support to deal with the strain of the pandemic, Homelessness Australia has also joined with National Shelter and the Community Housing Industry Association to call for a longer term $7.7 billion program to upgrade existing housing, purchase new sites and develop new housing complexes.
The groups said their proposal would build 30,000 homes and generate 18,000 jobs each year in construction. Modelling prepared for the groups found the program would boost Australia's GDP by between $5.8 billion and $6.7 billion.
Community Housing Industry Association chief executive Wendy Hayhurst said the proposal – dubbed the Social Housing Acceleration and Renovation Program (SHARP) – would help prevent massive job losses in the construction sector.
"Adopting the SHARP proposal just makes good sense because there is almost infinite demand for social housing. This is a build program that can ramp up quickly and the activity can be targeted where the economic impacts are felt most," Ms Hayhurst said.
Federal Housing Minister and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said that, while social housing was a state government responsibility, the Morrison government had made significant investments.
Over two years, the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation has issued $1.5 billion worth of bonds, supporting the construction of 2000 new homes and the maintenance of 6300 existing homes. A separate infrastructure funding program had provided $160 million that would support 2800 new dwellings.
"Every year, the federal government provides more than $6 billion in commonwealth rent assistance and support to the states and territories to deliver social housing through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement," Mr Sukkar said.
National Shelter chief executive Adrian Pisarski said the federal government should use its "fiscal firepower" to invest in the SHARP initiative, which, while costly, would yield major economic returns.
According to Homelessness Australia, more than116,000 Australians were without a home on any given night before the pandemic hit and hundreds of thousands more faced rent stress.
State governments have rolled out extra support for homelessness services during the pandemic, including paying for temporary accommodation in hotels and helping people into permanent homes.
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