The Hunter's housing crisis is so dire that someone facing homelessness can wait five years for social housing. Even those in need of urgent help, such as mothers and children escaping domestic violence, can spend eight months waiting for a safe home.
Already forced to turn away one in every two people who need accommodation, homelessness providers are on their knees. Some have been forced to cut staff hours and the help they offer to people in crisis.
Without substantial and targeted investment in this month's budget, NSW's housing and homelessness crisis will go from dire to catastrophic.
So far, the NSW government has said the right things. Now it needs to deliver. Last year's budget provided a tiny fraction of the funding needed - just $70 million for social housing, $35 million to maintain existing stock and $5.9 million for frontline services.
Since then, things have deteriorated. Efforts to reduce the 58,000-plus social housing waitlist have stalled, rough sleeping has skyrocketed and there is less help for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
A street count in February found a 25 per cent increase in rough sleeping across NSW. Across the Hunter and Central Coast, 188 people are sleeping rough, up from 100 last year. In Newcastle alone, rough sleeping rose from six to 49 people.
This was the third largest increase across the whole state alongside the Northern Beaches, and behind Coffs Harbour and Byron Shire.
The median wait time for social housing in the Hunter is two-and-a-half years, higher than the statewide median of two years.
There are just 15,771 social homes in the entire Hunter region. To put that into perspective, there are twice as many homes sitting empty, many of them holiday homes or short-stay rentals.
It's hardly surprising that the increase in rough sleeping and the social housing waitlist have coincided with surging rents. The median rent in Newcastle is a record $639 a week, up almost $200 from $452 just four years ago. Similarly huge increases have been felt all over the Hunter. In Lake Macquarie median rents are $583, up from $396 four years ago. In Maitland they've jumped to $544 from $376.
It's true that rising interest rates have affected rents as landlords pass on the costs of increased mortgage repayments. But investors can only do this when vacancy rates are low and renters are in fierce competition for a roof above their heads. In other words, the severe shortage of housing in the Hunter is driving up rents to all-time highs, forcing people to go without food, medicine and heating, just to remain in a home.
For many, the price is too high. They are forced to sleep on couches, move between temporary accommodation, sleep rough or stay in unsafe and overcrowded boarding houses. Others remain in violent homes because there is nowhere safe for them to go.
More than a third of people who sought help from homelessness services last year did so because of domestic violence. Another 40 per cent cited the housing crisis, and a similar proportion cited financial difficulties.
This is an unacceptable state of affairs for a wealthy nation. The state government must do more than empathise. It must act. We need significant investment in social housing and homelessness services in the June 18 budget. To turn this crisis around, the government must build 5000 new social homes a year.
It must also commit to repairing and bringing dilapidated vacant social housing stock back online.
Meanwhile, frontline homelessness services are at immediate risk without $64 million in new funding for the next two years. The lip service paid to housing and homelessness in last month's federal budget makes this all the more urgent.
Just one in 20 homes in NSW are social housing. We need that proportion to be closer to one in 10.
Achieving that would reduce pressure on rents, ensure people in danger can have a safe home and fulfil their potential, and decrease spending pressure in other areas such as justice and health. These are not luxuries, but the basic necessities we should expect in a wealthy and civilised society.
