It’s a perfect storm and it spells a horror Christmas and New Year for the tens of thousands of people caught up in Brisbane’s housing and homelessness crisis.
The recent ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report makes for troubled reading for many who are already facing housing stress and those who are about to experience it for the first time.
With Brisbane experiencing crippling rent rises of up to and above 30%, surging interstate migration numbers and increasing competition for the city’s dwindling housing stock – it’s far from a festive season for many.
Startling reports say that there are more than 71,000 people in Brisbane experiencing housing stress and that half of city households feeling housing stress are families.*
And the long held Australian dream of owning your own home was dealt a blow with the report describing how Queensland housing market values soared 42.7% between August 2020 and June 2022, which means that a house that was within reach a couple of years ago had suddenly become out of reach.
Brisbane City Council Labor Leader Jared Cassidy said the recent Queensland Housing Summit was an important step in the right direction but urged action at all levels of government.
“Yes, much of the heavy lifting is at the state and federal levels but local government has a part to play as well,” Cr Cassidy said.
“Earlier this year, our Labor team in Council successfully moved a motion to initiate Brisbane’s first Homelessness Strategy.”
“There’s so much more that Council can do to ease the pressure on Brisbane residents.”
“Things like partnering with housing providers to increase stock, giving infrastructure charge discounts for affordable housing, and practical zoning changes could all make a real difference.”
“Low cost and social housing is definitely something I would like this Council take more of an interest in.”
“What people have to understand is that all over this city, there are women and children sleeping in cars and couch surfing with little or no hope of finding a place of their own, especially when we see these disturbing new figures.”
“As I have said many times before having a roof over your head is a fundamental right of us all.”
Cr Cassidy congratulated QShelter on its decades of service in the housing sector and the release of its visionary Go For Gold report, a social inclusion legacy framework for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games (to access the full report click here).
Partnered by Urbis, QShelter said in the report that the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games could be deliver real change.
Go for Gold looks at case studies from previous games, showcases innovation in the sector and maps out 46-recommendations across five key result areas.
QShelter recently held a workshop in Brisbane aimed at CEOs and leaders from community housing sector (CHPs), specialist homelessness services (SHSs), local and state government, and other community service organisations, to expand on some of the recommendations and workshopping it for localised advocacy efforts and implementation.
“I was delighted to attend this meeting and congratulate QShelter on its great work and encourage people to read the Going For Gold report,” Cr Cassidy said.
https://thedeck.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Go-for-Gold-Legacy-Report-Q-Shelter.pdf
*What is housing stress?
A household is typically described as being in ‘housing stress’ if it is paying more than 30% of its income in housing costs. As higher income households can spend a higher proportion of their income on housing without experiencing problems, they are often excluded from these types of analysis. Consequently, a ratio of 30/40 is often used as a benchmark—that is, if households that fall in the bottom 40% by income spend more than 30% of their income on housing, they are defined as being in housing stress.
