More Australians are on the brink of homelessness because rents are going up - Homelessness Australia

Homelessness Australia reports that a growing number of its citizens are experiencing increasing levels of housing stress and poverty, with no relief in sight. Statistics from the last few years show that rents are going up quickly all over the country.

Corelogic's new numbers show that national annual rent growth hit a "new record high" in the year to December, going up 10.2%.

Kate Colvin, who is the CEO of Homelessness Australia, said that the numbers show how much pressure is put on many vulnerable renters.

"The latest annual rent increase makes an already expensive rental market even worse. Ms. Colvin said, "These numbers are scary and show that more Australians are having a hard time, falling deeper or for the first time into housing stress and poverty."

"Housing stress is the cause of homelessness that is growing the fastest, and services are being overrun by people who can't afford a roof over their heads."

This week, new data showed that the number of open jobs in the country was at a record low of 0.8%. With vacancy rates below 0.5% in Perth, Adelaide, and Hobart, Australia's capital cities,

"With vacancy rates staying low and rents staying high, renters who are having trouble will have another terrible year if nothing is done to help them. People will continue to sleep in cars and skip meals, as we keep hearing in horrible stories. Ms Colvin said.

"Tenants can't wait for action for years. The next budget needs to help people right away by increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance and making a much bigger commitment to social housing.

The housing crisis in Victoria is causing more people to spend longer periods of time behind bars because parole applications are being denied or withdrawn because there is insufficient housing.

According to recent information gleaned from the state's Adult Parole Board 2021/22 Annual Report, nearly one-third of all parole applications that were turned down were rejected because there was either no suitable accommodation available or insufficient time left on the person's sentence to find suitable accommodation.

At least one in every four inmates who withdrew their parole applications in 2021/22 cited a lack of appropriate housing options as a reason for their decision.

If all 163 individuals had been granted parole, the taxpayers would have saved more than $25 million over the course of a year.

Building more affordable housing would have the additional benefit of reducing crime. A study by the University of New South Wales found that people who got their first chance at public housing after getting out of jail did better with the criminal justice system.

There was a 7.6% annual decrease in the number of court appearances, a 7.6% annual decrease in the number of proven offences, an 11.2% annual decrease in the amount of time spent in custody, and a 7.8% annual decrease in the amount of time spent on supervised orders.

Jenny Smith, chief executive officer of the Council to Homeless Persons, stated that these figures are yet another reason to invest in more social housing.

She stated that "Victoria's social housing shortfall is now stinging all taxpayers who are footing the bill to unnecessarily keep more people in prison." "Victoria's social housing shortfall is now stinging all taxpayers," she said.

"The availability of housing is another important factor that plays a role in keeping people out of jail after they have been released. It has been proven that increasing the amount of social housing available will reduce crime.

"It would be more cost effective to make an investment in social housing as opposed to increasing spending on prisons. We can make our community safer and solve one of the most important problems our society is facing at the same time.

"Let's stop making taxpayers pay for the housing shortage by punishing them. When compared to spending on prisons, every dollar allocated to social housing goes much further.

"It is possible to lower crime rates and stimulate economic growth by increasing the number of people who have access to housing that is both secure and affordable.

"It is essential that the Victorian Government makes a commitment to the construction of 6000 new social dwellings each year over the course of the following decade. This is of the utmost importance given that the Big Housing Build programme is projected to run out of funding around the middle of the following year."

According to the findings of the research paper titled "Australia's Prison Dilemma" by the Productivity Commission, the state of Victoria has the highest daily cost of $421 to incarcerate someone.

This equates to a yearly cost of $154,000 for each person who is incarcerated.

Between the fiscal years of 2010–2011 and 2019–2020, the cost of maintaining the state's prison system increased by 7.3% in Victoria.

The study cited evidence that having access to stable housing affects whether someone will reoffend after being released from prison, while homelessness is also recognised as an important factor in people coming into contact with law enforcement.

According to the report from the Adult Parole Board, 116 of the denials were because of housing problems. The cost of housing that number of inmates is equivalent to the average cost of running a prison for a year.

There were 47 inmates who admitted on their own that the lack of appropriate housing was the reason behind their decision to withdraw. The annualised cost of providing housing for that number of incarcerated people comes to an average of $7.24 million.

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