Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis and although affordable housing is generally considered a state and federal concern, local governments are now stepping up to the plate.
It might be a novel idea in Australia but in the UK, council housing comprises around 10 per cent of the housing stock and is a vital provider of social and affordable housing.
In the year since the Australian government created the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC), its bond aggregator, AHBA, has raised funds for affordable housing providers, allowing them to refinance loans under better conditions. Its first, A$315 million bond issue was in March. The second A$315 million bond issue this week offers providers 2.07% for ten-year interest-only loans.
The NHFIC has released its first annual report. So what progress has been made? And what could be done better?
A vacant Sydney nursing home awaiting redevelopment has been lent to a women’s shelter, with experts claiming examples like this could offer a short-term solution to Australia’s lack of public housing.
There is much to be welcomed in the Labour party’s manifesto, particularly the idea of the Sovereign Land Trust to buy land and lease it back to communities, the commitment to zero-carbon new homes and an end to right-to-buy (Corbyn unveils Labour’s most radical manifesto for decades, 22 November).
But – as an architect who was active in London in the 1960s and 70s, at the height of the postwar expansion of council house building – I have some misgivings about the commitment to build at a rate of 150,000 units a year.
We need to look back to the Great Depression to find a time when the Australian public faced challenges of this scale – and also to find policy solutions that have the potential to inspire hope and trust in our system once more.
There is one important idea that might hold the key to solving our current problems: the nation-building project.
When it comes to household debt, Australians are world record holders.
“We’ve got household debt to income on just a touch under 200 per cent, and that in my view is a massive macro risk,” Gerard Minack, economist and principal at Minack Associates, told 7.30.
“Why are Australians so in debt? Because we went out and bought houses.
“Not built houses, went out and bought them and pushed the prices up to among the most expensive in the world.
“It is literally a house of cards.”
He has his fingers crossed that we do not head into recession in the next 10 years.
As we look at the issue of homelessness and search for solutions, maybe it is time to reframe how we address the costs of homelessness in Australia. By investing differently to assist the homeless, governments could save millions in other related areas, providing improvements for other social and personal outcomes.
It’s hard to explain the exact appeal of Never Too Small. The YouTube series takes viewers on meditative tours of tiny homes from across the world. Yes the spaces are beautiful and the design innovative, but there’s a curdle in the architectural cream. The residences, which range from 22 to 40 square meters in size, are a curious mix of aspirational and off-putting. Part of you wants to live in these dreamy matchboxes, another wonders how anyone could.
Never Too Small began as a pet project for director and design fan Colin Chee, a way to engage with the architects he admired. It only took four episodes to realise he was on to something. With views growing daily, his employer – Melbourne-based production company NewMac – encouraged him to develop the series. Two years later the channel has drawn a huge following, boasting over 700,000 subscribers, with videos regularly bringing in millions of views.
The homes in Never Too Small are aspirational, but most tiny apartments aren’t a conscious choice of the young, rich and stylish. Scrolling through the comments below Chee’s videos, you quickly realise they rub many the wrong way. Viewers point out that these homes are only available to the wealthy, where many first-homebuyers and young people are more likely to be stuck with poorly designed and overpriced “dog box” apartments.
An unbroken run of prosperity has created property millionaires, but it’s also left a lot of vulnerable people out in the cold.
At first Helen, 55, didn’t realise she was homeless. She was just crashing on friends’ couches until she found something permanent. But as time went on, there was no secure accommodation on the horizon. Helen struggled with an alcohol dependency and she knew her lack of permanent accommodation was affecting her recovery.
She accessed a variety of church and other charity services and was placed in boarding houses that were unsafe or unsanitary. In bedsit accommodation, a man broke into her room while she was away – and the landlord took his time fixing the lock.
She went from short-term place to short-term place, with her name down for government social housing. She was told it might take 10 years. She now lives in privately-funded housing for women, and from that place of stability has been able to tackle addiction and past trauma.
State and territory governments have presided over the loss of more than 20,000 public housing units in a decade, marking a “considerable change” as control over social housing is increasingly handed to non-profits.
A new study, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Thursday, found the declining number of publicly owned homes was offset by a 55,470 increase in homes run by non-profit providers.
Although overall social housing, which includes government and non-profit run stock, increased by about 27,401 – or about 6% – over the 10 years to 2017-18, the study found the increase had “not kept pace with the growth in households”.