COVID-19 Research Hub

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.

Almost 40% of Australian tenant households can’t afford essentials such as bills, clothing, transport and food, after paying rent, because their incomes have reduced significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has found.

Australian renters have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 facing income loss, the inability to pay rent, tenure insecurity and eviction risk. Twenty leading thinkers from housing, economics, policy, urban planning, and epidemiology have explored the results from a survey of 15,000 renting households for the publication Rental Insights: A COVID-19 Collection released today.

Housing support for women and children facing domestic and family violence (DFV) has been an important policy focus in recent years, and the restrictions put in place as a result of COVID-19 may impact that support. Additionally, with people around the world being forced to stay home in order to reduce transmission of the coronavirus, medical professionals and policing organisations are warning of an increase in cases of DFV.

Former Socceroo Craig Foster headlines the concurrent session, No income, no home: Non-citizens and temporary visa holders which examines the experiences of temporary migrants and refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic and the housing challenges they have faced – exacerbated by lack of access to government supports such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker.

Internationally, improving the environmental sustainability of residential property has been identified as an important way to ensure that economic stimulus spending is invested wisely. It can reduce energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions, improve comfort and health and support employment in the construction sector.

As Australia continues to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks, one of the methods Australian states and territories have used is restrictions on who can move through an area and how far they can go. However, to keep societies functioning there are key workers who need to be at their workplaces, regardless of where they commute from. This has led to question as to just who is a key worker and how far do they commute through Australia’s large capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic shocks had profound impacts on housing outcomes of many Australians and required rapid and large-scale interventions from different levels of government. The effectiveness of these interventions and the lessons to be learned are the focus of a newly funded AHURI priority research project.

This AHURI Brief, and the series that follow, draw on themes that emerged from an International Housing Policy Exchange convened by AHURI, in collaboration with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in late 2020.

A key focus of the AHURI an US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) International Housing Policy Exchange was the response to helping people who are homeless and on the streets (i.e. ‘rough sleepers’) find appropriate housing or shelter during the pandemic.

The AHURI-HUD International Housing Policy Exchange highlighted the role of social and economic inequality in health outcomes. The participating countries all reported people with inadequate housing who lived in low socio-economic areas were disproportionately affected by the virus.

Internationally, improving the environmental sustainability of residential property has been identified as an important way to ensure that economic stimulus spending is invested wisely. It can reduce energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions, improve comfort and health and support employment in the construction sector.