This was the situation in 2020 in the NSW Northern Rivers region......
House of Representatives, Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, Inquiry into homelessness in Australia: June 2020, Social Futures -Submission 141
Northern NSW suffers from chronic homelessness issues. Like many regional communities, it is characterised by relatively low incomes, lack of employment opportunities, high welfare dependency, significant pockets of social disadvantage, limited stocks of affordable housing (especially in the coastal areas) and a lack of regular public transport. The Northern NSW region has an above average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population at 4.4 per cent compared to the national average of 2.9 per cent.
This combination of high rents and a critical shortage of available rental accommodation has created severe housing stress among a considerable portion of the community, forcing many into homelessness. With the growth in tourism in some coastal communities, property values have soared and increasing numbers of dwellings are used as short term rental accommodation for visitors and tourists, further reducing available and affordable housing stock for people in the private rental market.
The Richmond Federal Electorate was ranked third highest across the whole of Australia for rental stress at 43 per cent (7,390 households).
Housing stress is particularly high among renter households at 38.8 per cent compared to 28.4 per cent for NSW and 28 per cent for Australia.
The four least affordable local government areas for renters in regional NSW are located within the Northern Rivers.
The average monthly rental vacancy rate for the Northern Rivers over the 12 months to April 2020 was 1.8 per cent. This is a very tight market compared to Sydney where the vacancy rate is 3.4 per cent.
There is substantial pressure in regional housing markets in NSW with most of the regional markets surveyed recording average monthly vacancy rates of 2 per cent or less over the same period.
While the Northern Rivers only represents 4 per cent of the NSW population the region recorded 18.7 per cent of the State’s rough sleepers on Census night in 2016 (up from 18.4 per cent in 2011).
Affordable housing and rental stress remains an issue.....
The Guardian, 6 February 2022:
In the already Covid-stretched hospitals of northern New South Wales, health workers are struggling with another growing pressure caused by the pandemic.
House prices have soared in Byron Bay and surrounding areas since Covid lockdowns and work-from-home inspired many to flee the city for a sea or tree change.
And while the impacts on buyers or renters in the area have been well documented, hospital workers say it’s having far-reaching effects on the community’s health.
The consequences of the housing crush are being felt at hospitals such as Ballina, where nurse and New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) representative Suzie Melchior works.
“That’s not just staff struggling to get permanent housing, but we’ve seen people who are almost itinerant,” she said.
“We’re not used to people living out of their vehicles, their cars. That seems to be a new thing.”
Every additional stressor is being felt due to the surge in demand brought on by Covid, and already prevalent GP shortages.
“They don’t have a GP so they’re coming to us for their basic healthcare needs,” Melchior said.
“They know they’re not meant to be accessing emergency departments to get their blood pressure medication or their gout medication but they don’t have the option.”
Long-term renter and mother of four Jenny – not her real name – is at breaking point after two years of housing instability, and has seen her health slide as a result.
“There have been moments where I ask, ‘What’s the point in going on?’,” she said. “My stress levels are through the roof. A human right to safety and shelter – there’s nothing remotely close to that now.”
Jenny has a month left at her short-term rental in Alstonville and after months of searching still can’t find a secure and affordable next step.
She is considering buying a caravan or pitching a tent.
“I wouldn’t have considered that in the past but what are our options? What else can we do?” she said.
Melchior said many patients were presenting without Medicare cards because they didn’t have an address for them to be posted to, taking up extra admin time that overworked staff didn’t have.
“There’s a ripple effect,” she said.
“It is small in the scheme of things but if you multiply that across how many other people are having similar issues … it’s big.”
Another local nurse – who wished to remain anonymous – said she was also seeing more patients without a fixed address.
“Even in the maternity unit we see it – new mums living in caravan parks because they can’t find housing,” she told the Guardian……
The Guardian, 25 January 2022:
Nearly half of all people who sought help with homelessness last year in New South Wales did not get it, a new report has shown.
According to data from the Productivity Commission’s annual report on government services, 48.2% of people in Australia’s most populous state who asked for accommodation assistance from specialist homelessness services in the 2020-2021 financial year went without.
That figure represents a substantial increase from five years ago, when 37.2% of people did not receive the help they had requested.
The Productivity Commission report, released on Tuesday, contains detailed information on the performance of Australia’s social support services, including housing, homelessness, aged care, youth justice, child protection and more.
It shows unmet requests for homelessness accommodation services are increasing across Australia, from 30.2% of people going unassisted nationally in 2016–2017, to 32.2% in the last financial year…..
Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services 2022: Housing and Homelessness, 25 January 2022:
Low income earners are particularly susceptible to housing instability as market factors lead to higher private housing prices. ‘Rental stress’, defined as spending more than 30 per cent of gross household income on rent, is a measure of housing affordability for this cohort. In 2017-18, of the 27.1 per cent of Australian households renting in the private sector, 43.4 per cent were low income. Of these households, 50.2 per cent experienced rental stress – largely unchanged over the past 10 years.
Of low income households that were CRA [Commonwealth Rental Assistance] recipients at end June 2021, 72.5 per cent would have experienced rental stress without CRA. With CRA, 45.7 per cent still experienced rental stress…..
In 2021 the percentage of NSW households considered to be under rental stress:
- At more than 30% household income on rent.
Receiving no housing assistance payment from the federal government – 75.2%;
With rental assistance payment (CRA) from federal government – 48.5%.
- At more than 50% household income on rent.
Receiving no housing assistance payment from the federal government – 35.1%;
With rental assistance payment (CRA) from federal government – 20.4%.
In 2020-21 there were 321,509 eligible dependent children living in renting households which received Commonwealth Rental Assistance.
As at 30 June 2021, nationally there was a total of 400 792 households and 422 753 social housing dwellings (tenancy rental units for community housing), excluding ICH [Indigenous Community Housing]. In addition, as at 30 June 2020 (latest available data), there were 16 363 households and 15 053 permanent dwellings managed by government funded ICH organisations.
The total number of low income households in all categories of social housing in NSW as of 30 June 2021 was 141,597.
The occupancy rate of all NSW social housing categories is high. Only between est. 3-5% of all social housing stock was available to new tenants on 30 June 2021.
There has been a marked rise in community housing stock in NSW. However this in part reflects a transfer of 13,465 public housing dwellings (under management or held by title) to community housing organizations between 1 July 2018 & 30 June 2021, rather than an significant increase in total social housing stock numbers overall.
For decades the NSW Government has indulged in shifting deck chairs around on the Titanic rather than addressing the sinking proportion of social and affordable housing in the overall for sale or rental residential housing mix.
By 2019 the NSW shortfall in social and affordable housing projected unmet need was est. 316,700 units by 2036 - est. 99,700 of those units representing the shortfall in rural & regional New South Wales.
SOCIAL HOUSING STOCK NSW 30 JUNE 2012 to 30 JUNE 2021
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