News

COVID-19 has exacerbated vulnerabilities such as poor housing quality and location, housing affordability, energy poverty, and a range of social, mental and physical health conditions, new AHURI research has revealed.

The Productivity Commission has released a draft report for their inquiry into the mental health and wellbeing of Australia’s population; the prevention and early detection of mental illness; and treatment for those who have a diagnosed condition. The draft report encourages written submissions from the public and other health professionals up until 23 January 2020.

During the pandemic, over one-fifth (21%) of surveyed tenants felt that difficulties were piling up so high that they could not overcome them, compared to just 6 per cent of landlords according to new AHURI research.

The new report, ‘Policy coordination and housing outcomes during COVID-19’, led by researchers from Swinburne University of Technology analysed the scale and range of policy interventions in the housing system during the current pandemic—a critical first step for ongoing assessment of the outcomes and impacts of the initiatives deployed by governments.

New AHURI research, ‘Responding to the pandemic, can building homes rebuild Australia?’, undertaken by researchers from Curtin University, University of Sydney and University of Adelaide, assesses various ways the housing industry can help rebuild an Australian economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.