Experts have said for years we need more social and affordable housing. So where is it?   

Posted Sun 28 Jan 2024
ABC News

Children living in tents in the bush. Single mums sliding into homelessness after rent increases. Pensioners sleeping in vans after working all their lives.

We've all seen stories of the many Australians engulfed by the housing crisis, as well as the fierce debate about how to best go about correcting course.

For years there's been one solution most experts have raised over and over again: building more social and affordable housing.

But it doesn't seem to have happened yet.

At the end of 2023, there were 426,582 social housing dwellings across the country, according to Productivity Commission data released this week.

Between 2006 and 2022, social housing stock grew by just 36,200 dwellings, or about 2,260 homes each year, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show. Victoria saw a net increase of just 74 dwellings between 2018 and 2022, according to state government data.

Public Housing Construction
Experts say there's a number of reasons why Australia's social housing stock has fallen.( ABC News )
Despite the expert consensus that we need more stock, as well as the announcement of new money and projects across the country, social housing wait lists have stretched out to more than a decade in some areas.

It raises the question, if we've had a solution to the housing crisis with broad support in front of us for years, why does it feel like we're still so far behind?

What's the difference between social and affordable housing?
First, it's worth flagging these are not the same thing, despite often being used interchangeably.

Social housing is government-subsidised housing for vulnerable and low-income people. It comprises:

public housing, which is owned and managed by governments
and community housing, which is managed, and often owned, by not-for-profits
Social housing is allocated according to need — and that need has skyrocketed in recent years.

The definition of affordable housing is a bit harder to pin down, as different jurisdictions have different definitions. Broadly speaking, it's something of a stepping stone between social housing and the private market.

"Social housing costs governments more and provides a much better subsidy for tenants. Affordable housing costs governments less. It's still reduced compared to the market, but is less beneficial to the tenants," says Michael Fotheringham, managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

"The upside of it is that it can be provided to more people, so rather than providing a very deep subsidy for a small number, they provide a smaller subsidy for a larger number of people."

Now, onto some of the reasons we seem to be experiencing so much inertia in getting new projects built.

The politics at play
Political will and investment, or lack thereof, has been a big one, Dr Fotheringham says.   

He says the main reason Australia has a shortage of social and affordable housing is chronic underinvestment by governments of all levels and political persuasion over decades.   

Social and affordable housing is also not a very good "vote winner", says Hal Pawson, professor of housing research and policy at UNSW Sydney.

He says governments have in recent years preferred to target housing assistance towards first-home buyers.

"The wider electorate finds the idea of helping working households get a foot on the ladder in home ownership to be a very meritorious thing ... whereas social housing doesn't have that sort of cachet."




Homelessness rises amid Australia’s national housing crisis
Professor Pawson says Australia's structure of government has also been a factor — it's the states which have the direct responsibility for planning and housing, but it's the federal government that has the resources.

He says that's led to buck passing.

"For most of the last 10 years we've had federal governments that have said ... 'perhaps we need more [social and affordable housing], but it ain't our job. State and territory governments: we would be more than happy if you were to spend your own money on doing this, but don't look towards us'."

Labour issues and lack of financial foresight
Dr Fotheringham says governments are starting to come back to the table and the politics are shifting.

But new housing still takes a long time to build.

"The pipeline, particularly for significant estates or development, is multiple years in the making. One of the real challenges we've had since the start of the pandemic is disruption to those sorts of systems," Dr Fotheringham says.

Materials such as timber frames and premium concrete have become "incredibly hard to get" over the last few years, he says.

A further complication is that just as governments are looking to spend more on housing, the people to build it aren't around, he says.

The frame of a house under construction.
Governments say workforce and supply chain issues are holding up the construction of new stock.(ABC News: )
"The workforce is nowhere near sufficient for what we need.

The builders are too busy building houses and apartments to cope
with the mass immigration program by the last 25 years of Govts.
to worry about social housing.
Millions more will arrive with nowhere to house them.
We are turning into a 3rd world country.

1 million arrived here since the end of the Covid crisis
and another half a million more are on their way this year
including killers from Sudan.

JC Denton wrote on Feb 10^th, 2024 at 6:52am:



No - we need more killers from Sudan.

whiteknight wrote on Feb 10^th, 2024 at 6:27am:


This from the same ABC that refused to report on or acknowledge the Mount Warning protest because it didn't present a balanced viewpoint.

freediver wrote on Feb 10^th, 2024 at 7:42am:


Of course - only one side presents a balanced viewpoint - everyone knows that.... it's Modernthink.

Arguing with the bank at the moment over their taking money not owed - they are religiously paid every fortnight - now the guy trying to cover up is saying that the fortnights don't coincide with the payment month - well - yes they do ... in the sense that if there is a payment before the date and a payment later, they cover that period and amount to the same.  He says that because we paid on the 14th, the 15th becomes an extra fortnight.... even when we paid on the 28th .... ummmm... yes??  Now he says Yes - they had no bananas - but if he rectifies it by refunding the overdrawn money, the computer will tell us we are in arrears again....

There's a hole in that paradigm - oh, I do hope it is not one that long weak in the top end boasted about setting up for banks -so FIX it, dear Henry!!  Apologise in writing, state unequivocally that you were wrong, and refund the money stolen.  Ahem - unlike many perhaps - we didn't miss your attempted rort - and I'm prepared to lay money that there will be countless others and you are running scared of another class action.

Modernthink..... half-educated self-interested idiocy running the show....

Well the greens max chandler Mather, says negative gearing should be limited to one investment property.       

Jasin wrote on Feb 11^th, 2024 at 9:20am:


Put tunnels and lifts in and make it into a second Gibraltar.... at least it wouldn't fall down when the next earthquake or mad rooting on the top floor takes place.....