Can we end homelessness in Canberra? Photo: Region.
Who hasn’t passed a person experiencing homelessness and wondered about the choices that led that person to their situation? The conclusion of Homelessness Week is a reminder that homelessness is the result of choices – political choices. The right choices by leaders of sufficient vision and skill could virtually end homelessness in Canberra.
As the ACT approaches its election, it is worth remembering that our choices at the ballot box are among the most important in deciding how much homelessness will be experienced in the ACT. We need leaders with the vision and courage to transform our approach to housing. Any candidates promising the status quo will continue to increase the number of people who experience homelessness in Canberra.
At the Commonwealth level, the Reserve Bank of Australia changes interest rates with the primary purpose of keeping inflation within certain boundaries. It is well understood that these decisions have direct consequences for unemployment rates.
In effect, the Reserve Bank forces some into unemployment in the name of monetary policy. This policy sacrifices a minority so that the majority can enjoy lower inflation. The assumptions underpinning monetary policy are increasingly being challenged, but regardless of how good it is, this policy setting shapes the environment in which the ACT Government makes decisions.
Unemployment and low wages lead to homelessness only in the context of other political choices, like the level of support that is provided to people experiencing unemployment. Support payments for those experiencing unemployment are not high enough to provide people with even the barest necessities. This is especially true in Canberra, where only seven of the 323 one-bedroom properties advertised cost less than $763 per fortnight, the maximum Jobseeker payment for a single person.
Across Australia, the ACT has the highest rate of people on Commonwealth Rent Assistance who are in rental stress (spending more than 30 per cent of their meagre incomes on rent) – more than half. A shocking 16 pre cent spend more than 70 per cent of their income on rent – with many of this group unable to afford decent food, health care and other essentials.
The supply of housing, especially public and community housing, is a political choice and a potent lever for any level of government to pull to reduce homelessness in the ACT.
The decline in the share of housing stock that is public housing from 12.2 per cent at self-government to a meagre 5.7 per cent is the result of a series of political choices made by successive ACT governments.
These choices are directly responsible for the growth of the waitlist for public housing to over 3000 in this term of government.
This Homelessness Week, ACTCOSS and ACT Shelter were proud to launch their joint housing and homelessness election platform. It focuses on increasing social housing stock to at least 10 per cent of all housing stock in the ACT by 2036, an ambitious but realistic goal.
Several parties and candidates have recognised the centrality of the housing crisis to our community’s welfare and have announced their own ambitious platforms for transformative change. ACTCOSS and ACT Shelter call on all remaining candidates and parties to sign up to the far-sighted investment required to transform our social housing system.
All Canberrans deserve a decent social safety net.
All Canberrans deserve a government that will tackle our community’s most pressing social policy challenge. This election is the time to ensure we have one.
Devin Bowles is the CEO of ACTCOSS.
Travis Gilbert is the CEO of ACT Shelter.
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