Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the ministerial statement on homelessness, and I thank the shadow minister for homelessness, the honourable member for Deakin, for the informed contribution he made yesterday. The cost-of-living crisis hitting Western Sydney is having astronomical impacts on so many people. Over recent months, there are more tents along Peach Tree Creek in my electorate of Lindsay. This is concerning and demonstrates the homelessness problem facing the nation.

In my community, I've spoken with local food banks and charities, who are working overtime to assist those in need, from providing a warm meal to trying to provide them with emergency and safe housing. One local church recently told me there has been a sharp rise in dual-income households accessing their services, when they had not experienced this previously. These are proud Western Sydney mums and dads who don't want to be seeking a handout, but due to the cost-of-living pressures—higher mortgage rates, ever-increasing energy bills, fresh food costing more and inflation being uncontrollable—they have nowhere else to go.

A few months ago, I held a housing and homelessness roundtable for local community leaders, community housing providers and charities to discuss solutions to the sudden and rapidly growing crisis of homelessness impacting the Lindsay community. They said more government support is needed to control inflation that is outstripping pay rises. An additional spend of more than $180 billion in the most recent budget certainly isn't helping to tame the inflation that is causing so much distress in my community and in every middle-Australia community across the country.

We know adequate and secure housing is the foundation for improving outcomes for health, education and economic furtherment in life. Kids need a home that is happy and warm. Unfortunately, the housing crisis is causing mental health issues for mums and dads, and this is spiralling through the family and impacting kids. I met with Kids Helpline last week, and they have noted a rise in really young children using their service, worried about their parents not being able to pay the mortgage or the rent and potentially becoming homeless. They are hearing these discussions that their parents are having and the distress that their financial issues are causing. This is shocking in a country like Australia.

This year's theme for Homelessness Week is It's Time to End Homelessness. The housing crisis is causing immense homelessness issues right now, and we do need solutions now.

As someone who, directly prior to being elected to parliament, worked for a community housing provider, and has also worked in government on social impact investment and affordable housing policy, I know there is always more to be done in this space.

Over five years ago when I was working in community housing, we were seeing a sharp increase in older women experiencing homelessness because they didn't have the financial support in their older years; they didn't have superannuation. We were raising the alarm back then, and still we are seeing a huge increase in older women experiencing homelessness and not having the housing product that is right for them and affordable for them.

The former coalition government was a leader in the policy area of housing, creating the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation—a key initiative which has helped many Australians into homes. The former government ensured the program supported 15,000 social and affordable homes across Australia. There was also the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, which has seen almost 7,000 more social and affordable dwellings. It was the first time the Commonwealth had invested in housing in this way, as the former housing minister has spoken about. It is good to see. I say 'good' because more needs to be done to see the government take on these two coalition initiatives, which have seen meaningful impacts for Australian families and helped in reducing homelessness. Further, the coalition secured the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, which targeted specific cohorts of Australians in need of housing, including older women, families impacted by domestic violence, young people who live out of home, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and those who have experienced long-term homelessness. These policies were all geared to get Australians out of homelessness.

But the figures are astounding. Things aren't shifting. I'm informed that there are 122,000 individuals who are facing homelessness on a nightly basis across the nation. Nearly a quarter of those are aged between 21 and 24. This needs direct and immediate action. If we can secure housing for these younger Australians early, we have a chance to turn their lives around and make sure they do not become another statistic of a person facing long-term homelessness. Our older Australians are silent sufferers of homelessness, with around 20,000 over-55s facing homelessness on a nightly basis.

We know that around 175,000 households are on social housing waitlists which extend to 10 years and more. In my home state of New South Wales, we are facing a social housing waitlist of 57,500 people. This is made up of 51,000 in the general waitlist, and 6½ thousand on the priority list who need assistance right now.

I want to acknowledge the local New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice housing team for their work in looking after so many social housing tenants across the Lindsay electorate. I also acknowledge our community housing providers, who do a lot of work in providing not only housing but also wrap-around support, with the ultimate aim that people don't stay long-term in social housing but can move on to the private market, which seems absolutely impossible for so many people right now. To the people who are on the frontline of homelessness every day: I know you are working so extremely hard to make a difference, but we do need more support, across Lindsay and across Australia, to end homelessness.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in response to the statement on Homelessness Week. Housing, and homelessness, is an area of increasing concern for all electorates, and each experiences the issue differently. It's not just a question of rough sleeping, and it's not always so evident to people in the community. It is couch surfing; it is relying on friends and family, having temporary solutions; it's house-sitting. They all show that there is insecurity of housing, and that can often snowball into so many other issues. The most distressing is when we look at which the demographics are within our community most at risk of facing homelessness. In that respect, women over 55 are the most at-risk group facing homelessness. That's just incredibly concerning when we think that this is a generation of women that has given so much to our society. Obviously, rapidly rising interest rates and housing affordability are issues on everyone's mind, and they always have a knock-on effect. It isn't just the affordability or where the mortgage is, it's what happens when it comes to rental availability and other issues. And, of course, we're also seeing a huge increase in insurance premiums. All of these things create added pressure on a system that's already failing.

The independent review into the government's National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation found that the government needed to invest some $290 billion over the next two decades to address the shortfall in housing. The current government has, to date, committed $10 billion to its Housing Future Fund, which of course will be a smaller amount on a yearly basis from an investment point of view. There has been much debate about this but, to date, the government has failed to put other plans on the table or what else it's going to do—it's really hanging everything on that. Of course this isn't a situation just for this government; the previous government failed to address this. The housing crisis and homelessness is a compounding problem that all sides of politics have contributed to by failing to address long-term policy in relation to it.

Another group which is often overlooked in these discussions—and we have been focusing on women over 55 being so at risk—is young people, many who cannot stay in their homes for safety or other reasons. There are very few solutions for this. Recently, I attended a youth homelessness convention and I heard the stark evidence about major shortfalls in solutions for young people. The most distressing aspect was that if young people face homelessness in their youth then the percentage who are likely to face it again in life is very high. This shows that we have a whole cohort of young people whose future and prospects are incredibly impacted by the homelessness that they experience when they're young and, often, they experience this because of safety and other aspects.

In Warringah, data indicates that there are about 120 people who are homeless. Again, I'm concerned that the data doesn't truly capture the number, when one thinks of couch surfing, house sitting and other temporary solutions that people find. I know that some 84 of those are under the age of 19 and they're at the same risk as that young cohort I mentioned earlier. Thirty-three per cent of the Warringah electorate currently experiences rental stress—that figure is from Homelessness New South Wales—and we know that we have less than one per cent rental availability in the electorate. So the problem is under pressure from all angles.

We need all levels of government to coordinate and work collaboratively on this. Historically, there has been a high degree of responsibility-shifting between state and federal governments on homelessness and housing affordability. The recent Homelessness New South Wales paper, Pathways to ending homelessness, recommends simple changes, including: improving access to temporary accommodation by increasing minimum days from two to seven; removing the 28-day annual cap on temporary accommodation; increasing wraparound support and safety within temporary accommodation through consultation with providers, and embedding a culture of safety; and providing pathways out of homelessness for temporary accommodation. I visited Mission Australia a little while ago, and a solution that was also put up was assistance with putting up bonds to get into rental accommodation. Often, when people try to get out of homelessness, or when they've been in a shelter situation, they may be able to meet the rent but aren't in a position to put up the bond required to get into a lease and be accepted in the first place. Again, we need more solutions on the table.

All these changes can be made to improve access to temporary or rental accommodation, which is a key part of addressing homelessness. Next, we need evidence based solutions that include economic modelling and which utilise international examples and best practice. We need more social housing and, to achieve this, we need mandatory inclusion zoning. One recommendation is that some 20 per cent of all new housing should be social and affordable housing. Social Ventures Australia and the Grattan Institute are advocating that Commonwealth rent assistance be doubled. These are things that are directly within the purview of the current government to address.

We need incentives for long-term rentals to improve security for those unable to afford to buy a home. For example, European nations have far greater security for long-term rentals. There is an acknowledged culture that not everyone will buy a home, but, when you are renting, you can still have that as a long-term home. We also need to reduce barriers to the rental market, and that means greater access to rental bond loans, as mentioned by Mission Australia. We must also crack down on short-term leasing, such as Airbnb, and address the role that short-term rentals play in housing insecurity. Again, that is something that has increased dramatically over recent years, and there needs to be a proportional way of addressing this—as with vacancies. If too many homes are purchased by foreign investors or people living overseas but remain empty—I know that is a situation, often, in many of our major cities—that should be addressed. Other jurisdictions are looking at vacancy levies and things like that so that there is a disincentive to purchase real estate and leave it empty. Currently in Warringah there are some 14,320 unoccupied dwellings, so that is clearly a problem that needs to be addressed.

We can't talk about homelessness without acknowledging the local support of so many incredible organisations and volunteers. The support networks on the northern beaches are overwhelmed by the influx of people needing housing assistance. As a result, they're finding it hard to rehouse people in the beaches area, and they're relocating some people to areas where they lose connection with family and community and lose their support systems, which compounds the trauma of becoming homeless.

I want to thank community groups in my electorate for all their work and support for those experiencing homelessness, housing stress and cost-of-living stress. In particular, I want to thank Community Northern Beaches, for whom I've written to the Treasurer asking for additional funding because we need to ensure we have these organisations that are able to support our community and those most in need; Community Care Northern Beaches; Northern Beaches Women's Shelter; Bridge Housing, who have done an incredible project in the electorate; Burdekin group; Street Side Medics, who are out there helping to keep healthy those who are in homeless situations; One Meal, who are assisting so many households with meeting their food needs—so many families are doing tough when it comes to food, and we know the data says that too many parents go without because of that stress—Shelter NSW; Mission Australia; Salvation Army; Mosman House; Women's Community Shelters; and Link housing. Of course, there are many others who support those in need of food, shelter and help with coping with the cost-of-living crisis.

I'd also like to acknowledge Sarah Nelson, a constituent of mine who has extensive lived experience of homelessness and childhood abuse. I'd like to thank Sarah for her tireless advocacy and efforts in working across all parties and groups to achieve better outcomes for children at risk of homelessness by sharing her story, proposing solutions and building the business case for action. Her passion and determination to fix this issue is inspiring, and I really appreciate her constant contact with my office to put up solutions.

A stable house is a source of security and a foundation for building a better future for all aspects of a person's life. For society to function and for everyone in it to contribute productively, we need people to have security of housing. It's essential that we do more to provide affordable housing and social housing to those who need it most. Failing to provide this will cost government and society a whole lot more in the long run, so it is the right thing to do. I urge the government to get more proactive.