Briefs

Looking at the categories of homelessness in NSW from 2011–16, we find the largest increase of 72.4 per cent was for those living in 'severely' crowded dwellings, from 9,655 people in 2011 to 16,821—an increase of 7,166. The ABS defines a severely overcrowded home as needing four or more extra bedrooms to house the occupants of the dwelling.

In the context of Australia’s ageing population and increasingly unaffordable housing, government policies assume older householders would be best to downsize into smaller homes as this would make more efficient use of Australia’s housing stock and improve housing affordability issues.

One aspect of the growing awareness in the community of the terrible costs and impacts of domestic and family violence is its impact on homelessness.

With unaffordable housing being a growing issue of concern for Australians, a potential solution to increasing the supply of rental housing is the ‘Build to rent’ development route.

For agencies providing social housing to Indigenous Australians it is important to be sensitive to cultural practices that may be at odds with, or even conflict with, norms of social housing operation and management. In particular this is the case where the cultural practice of ‘demand sharing’ can lead to households being seen as ‘crowded’ and in breach of their tenancy agreement.