Uniting Vic.Tas has called on the Australian Government to commit to a long-term expansion of social housing, arguing that safe, secure and affordable housing is essential social and economic infrastructure that underpins individual wellbeing, community stability and participation in society.
Drawing on Uniting’s experience as both a community housing provider and a provider of homelessness, renter support, financial counselling, family violence and other community services, our submission to the Senate Inquiry into Social Housing highlights the growing human and social costs of Australia’s housing shortage.
The submission argues that social housing should be recognised alongside schools, hospitals and transport networks as critical infrastructure because it provides the foundation for people to participate in employment, education, family life and their communities.
The submission calls for:
- A binding national target for social housing to make up at least 10% of Australia’s housing stock within two decades
- A funded pipeline to deliver 54,700 additional social homes each year
- Long-term Commonwealth investment through strengthened and sustainable funding mechanisms, including the Housing Australia Future Fund
- Recognition of social housing as essential infrastructure, with reforms to remove planning and delivery barriers
- Continued investment across the housing and homelessness sector, including homelessness prevention, tenancy advocacy, crisis and transitional accommodation, and tenancy sustainment supports.
Uniting’s submission highlights that housing insecurity drives demand across a wide range of community services and that homelessness services cannot solve homelessness without housing. Frontline practitioners report increasing pressure on homelessness services, growing waiting lists, limited pathways into long-term housing and difficult decisions about which highly vulnerable families receive scarce housing opportunities.
The human impact is clear. After experiencing homelessness and living in temporary accommodation with her children, one Uniting Housing resident described the difference a secure home has made:
“My home is my stability. Knowing that me and my kids can put down roots here and we don’t have to worry about leaving. It gives me and my kids an opportunity to get connected to the community.”
Uniting is urging the Commonwealth Government to work with states and territories to substantially increase social housing supply while strengthening the broader housing and homelessness system. Together, these investments will help ensure more Australians can access a safe and affordable place to call home.
