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Submission to the NSW Legislative Assembly’s Select Committee on Essential Worker Housing

Author/s

Edward Cavanough, Max Douglass

Abstract

This submission canvasses the crisis in housing availability and affordability for essential workers in New South Wales.

Using up-to-date public wage and price data, it finds that almost all essential workers simply cannot afford to rent—yet alone purchase—in Sydney’s most affordable suburbs. It also details how this state of affairs affects not only essential workers, but has reverberations for community cohesion, essential service quality, and statewide productivity.

While not discounting the magnitude of the broader housing challenge in New South Wales, the submission proposes seven recommendations to ease the housing burden for essential workers in New South Wales which are practicable, fiscally responsible, and complementary.

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