The Commonwealth is set to pump billions of dollars into building more homes and better supporting homeless Australians.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled several measures which are designed to help address Australia’s current shortage of social and affordable housing.

The measures will be included in Tuesday’s budget.

They include:

  • $1 billion directed towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and youth under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility. This includes increasing the proportion of grants for this investment from $175 million to $700 million in the Budget to be able to support crisis and transitional housing.
  • $1 billion to help states and territories build housing sooner by constructing new roads, sewers, energy, water and community infrastructure which is required to support new home delivery and social housing delivery.
  • A new $9.3 billion 5-year National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness –for states and territories to combat homelessness, provide crisis support and build and repair social housing. This includes a doubling of Commonwealth homelessness funding to $400 million every year, matched by states and territories. It will replace the existing agreement which is set to expire on June 30.

The new announcement come amid ongoing questions about whether Australia can reach the national housing target of delivering 1.2 million homes over the five years from 1 July 2024.

To achieve this goal, the nation would need to deliver an average of 240,000 homes per year.

However, the National Housing Supply Council projects that new supply additions (net of demolitions) over the six years to 2028/29 will average only 174,000 homes per year.

The announcement also comes as the nation is facing a shortage of social and affordable housing and of accommodation for those – most commonly women and children – fleeing family violence.

Across the nation, the number of households who are on public housing waiting lists now stands at 1690,000 – a number which increased by 9.1 percent between 2019 and 2023.

Meanwhile, the shortage of homes for those fleeing family violence has been exacerbated by extremely tight rental markets and deteriorating rental affordability.

In a statement, Albanese said the measures would help to address housing and homelessness challenges.

“This Budget will provide an additional $1 billion for social and emergency housing to support women and children escaping domestic violence and will ensure a new five year funding agreement with states and territories for housing and homelessness,” he said.

“We are encouraging states and territories to kick-start building by providing an extra $1 billion to help fund the roads and services new homes need, and for new social housing.

“This Budget means more tradies, fewer barriers to construction, less talk and more homes.

“This isn’t about one suburb or one city or one state. It’s a challenge facing Australians everywhere and it needs action from every level of government.”

Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Officer Mike Zorbas welcomed the latest announcement.

“We strongly welcome this agreement and the additional funding,” Zorbas said.

“Hitting the housing targets now hinges on concerted federal, state and industry partnership on rezoning, faster approvals, more skilled workers and last mile infrastructure.”

 

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