Australia is in a housing crisis: Labor
Federal Labor says Australia is in a housing crisis with a growing number of people finding themselves homeless, and a governing minister who rarely wants to talk about it.
Labor's spokesman for housing and homelessness Jason Clare said when his party left government it was committed to $2 billion a year for social housing and indigenous homelessness.
This would now be about $2.7 billion in today's money adjusting for inflation and population growth.
However, Mr Clare said the Morrison government has only budgeted to spend $1.6 billion.
"That is a massive cut. We have a housing crisis in Australia," he said.
"It's harder to buy a home today than ever before. It's harder to rent than ever before. And there are more homeless Australians than ever before."
He said the biggest group of homeless Australians are women and children, many of them fleeing domestic violence.
Last year 10,000 were turned away from refuges because there wasn't a bed available.
The fastest-growing group of homeless Australians are women aged 55 and over.
"The Minister for Homelessness Michael Sukkar barely even talks about homelessness, let alone fund it, "Mr Clare said, noting he had been the minister for 223 days but only publicly mentioned the issue on six days.
Labor says if it won government, it would establish the Housing Australia Future Fund to build social and affordable housing and help reduce homelessness across Australia.
Over the first five years it would:
* Build 20,000 new social housing properties, including 4,000 homes for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness
* Build 10,000 affordable homes for the "heroes of the pandemic" - frontline workers like police, nurses and cleaners that are keeping people safe
* Provide $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvements of housing in remote Indigenous communities
* Invest $100 million in crisis and transitional housing for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence, and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness
* Invest $30 million to build housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.
The Department of Social Services says that in 2020-21, the government expects to spend around $8.4 billion in housing support and homelessness services.
It says this includes around $5.5 billion for eligible Australians to help meet their rental costs.
The department says it also includes around $1.6 billion through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement.
