Public housing in Pagewood, Sydney. Source: Sardaka, Wikimedia Commons
Australians are set to face even worse housing stress in 2023 as at least 6600 rental properties are removed from the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).
Queensland is set to lose the most NRAS properties this year, with 2499 properties being scrapped from the scheme. Victoria will lose 1356, Western Australia 1110, South Australia 806, and New South Wales 605.
With record low rental vacancies, property owners demanding more and more, and enormous waitlists for social housing; housing organisations are concerned that, with a serious lack in action from the government, more Australians will face poverty and homelessness this year.
Maiy Azize, the national spokeswoman for the housing campaign Everybody’s Home, said that this loss of affordable housing is happening at the worst time. Azize said that Australia was already short of roughly half a million social houses, and that current rental conditions mean it will be even harder for people to find housing.
“It is the least affordable we’ve ever seen it: the rental market is at fever pitch and the social housing shortfall is growing all the time,” Azize said. “We’ve heard stories about people living in their cars for months at a time while they try and find a place that’s affordable, so this is absolutely a problem that’s getting worse, and the unavailability of social homes and the enormous waiting list is playing into it.”
NRAS was launched back in 2008 by the Rudd Labor government. The scheme provided subsidies of around $11,000 annually every ten years to property owners to rent out properties at 20% less than the market value to low-income earners.
However, NRAS was scrapped by the Abbott Liberal government in 2014 and is set to end completely in 2026.
The Albanese government claims it is committed to building thousands of new affordable homes and that they ‘won’t waste a day in 2023’. However, Azize said that this is not enough, and that the government will need to build 25,000 new social homes every year in order to fix the crisis.
