At the beginning of Anti-Poverty Week, the St Vincent de Paul Society yesterday repeated calls for the Morrison Government to urgently address the chronic shortage of affordable, secure housing in Australia for low-income earners.
The Society’s national president, Claire Victory, repeated the call for the Government to establish a $10 billion social housing fund and implement a national housing strategy to address the shortfall of over 400,000 dwellings nationally.
“In the face of unprecedented unemployment, all governments must work to urgently address chronic housing shortage, rental stress and homelessness which have been on the rise for the past two decades and have escalated in the face of COVID-19,” Ms Victory said.
“Currently in Australia 190,000 households are on waiting lists for social housing. Two-thirds of vulnerable private renters are currently in rental stress, and 170,000 households have less than $250 to survive on each week after paying rent.
“The specialist homelessness service system is turning away 254 people each day. Half of households experiencing rental stress are still experiencing rental stress four years later.”
Ms Victory said Vinnies, a sponsor of Anti-Poverty Week, said an urgent investment in social housing would “stimulate the economy and provide sorely needed housing stock”.
FULL STORY
Anti-Poverty Week: The best solution is enough to live on and a place to call home (St Vincent de Paul Society)
