An expert report by the Federal Government’s own infrastructure authority has found low availability of social and affordable housing is putting more people at risk of homelessness in the Sunshine Coast.
Infrastructure Australia’s Regional Strengths and Infrastructure Gaps report finds “homelessness and a shortage of emergency accommodation as being key areas of concern for the community.”
It points out that 894 people experience homelessness in the region on any given day with a rental vacancy rate of only 0.5%.
The report says:
“…additional social and affordable housing is required to better manage existing levels of homelessness and housing stress.”
The report notes that only 2.3% of households were in social housing .
Kate Colvin, national spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, said the report reinforced the urgent need for an expansion of social and affordable housing.
“Rents have absolutely skyrocketed on the Sunshine Coast and people on low and modest incomes are being pushed to the brink of homelessness,” Kate Colvin said. “Expanding social and affordable housing would give Sunshine Coast families greater choice, by taking the heat out of the local market and stabilising the housing system.
“This is the right thing to do but also the smart and rational thing to do. The Federal Government’s own economic planning authority is pointing out that social housing is an economic and social imperative.
“This is entirely consistent with local community experience. Polling we released last week showed 75 per cent of respondents thought it was either ‘hard’ or ‘very hard’ for people on low-to-middle incomes to rent a home in their community. And 63 per cent said the federal Government had not done enough to address housing affordability.
“People on modest incomes have to bend over backwards just to secure and maintain a home. It shouldn’t be this hard.”
