Waiting lists for housing assistance

Housing assistance remains important for many Australians, particularly for groups such as older Australians and people with disability, according to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) last week.

The demand for social housing (rental housing provided by government or not for profit community organisations) remained high and waiting lists long.

The report, Housing assistance in Australia 2012, showed the number of Australian households experiencing moderate ‘housing stress’ (defined as spending more than 30% of gross household income on housing costs) increased from 900,000 (or 14% of all households) in 1995 to 1.4 million (17%) in 2010.

The number of households in severe housing stress (defined as spending more than 50% of gross household income on housing) also increased from 300,000 (4.6% of all households) in 1995 to more than 460,000 (5.5%) in 2010.

More than half a million of these households were low income households (those whose income was in the bottom two fifths of the population).

Government housing assistance was provided under the National Affordable Housing Agreement, which aimed to ensure all Australians had access to affordable, safe and sustainable housing.

The main type of assistance continued to be Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), provided to more than 1.1 million ‘income units’ (a single person or couple, with or without dependent children) in June last year, up slightly from 2010. More than nine in 10 (92%) CRA recipients were classified as low income.

An additional 159,000 households were provided with private rent assistance from state and territory governments.

In June last year, there were 421,100 social housing dwellings, which represented less than 4% of Australian housing stock. About 331,400 households were in public rental housing, down from 333,400 in 2010 and 345,300 in 2004.

There was also a slight fall in the number of households supported by home purchase assistance programs (44,210 in 2010 to 44,060 in 2011).

“The report shows a significant increase in the availability of mainstream community housing, that is, housing  managed by community organisations and supported through a variety of funding methods, including government funding,” AIHW spokesperson, Geoff Neideck, said.