Briefs

Deciding when a house is underutilised, occupied efficiently or crowded is important in determining social policy about housing. With people living in ‘severely’ crowded dwellings—the fastest growing category of homelessness—it is important to understand exactly what is meant when we refer to crowding.

The Australian Government has outlined the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to support first home buyers who are struggling to save the large deposits (usually around 20% of purchase price) required to buy a house.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recognises a person as experiencing homelessness if they are living in a dwelling that is inadequate; has no tenure, or if their initial tenure is short and not extendable; or does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations. From this overview the ABS defines six categories of homelessness:

While there are many ways of comparing a household's income with their housing costs, not all measures provide comparisons that are useful for policy-makers. Indeed, concern about levels of housing affordability is not about whether house prices are going up per se but rather the changes in the relationship between housing costs and household incomes.

One proposed solution to help low income and disadvantaged households access housing in the private rental sector is through ‘head leasing’. Head leasing is where a private rental property is rented from the landlord/owner by a legal entity, such as a community housing provider (CHP) or a government agency, which then on lets the property to a low income or disadvantaged tenant.