Thousands of young people are missing out on a safe place to live each year because community housing providers get more rent from older adults, research has revealed.
The lead author of the University of New South Wals research, Dr Ryan van den Nouwelant, said providers stood to lose 46% of the possible rental income if they chose a young person over an adult on a higher social security payment.
Providers received $100 extra each week for housing someone on the aged pension compared with someone on youth allowance, and $22 more for housing a 22-year-old on the disability support pension than a 20-year-old on the same payment, he said.
“If you’re on a lower income payment, because the rent is tethered to your income, you are charged less rent,” Van den Nouwelant said. “There’s this real disincentive.
“So if you’re a community housing organisation, if you’re looking to [rent to] a young person experiencing homelessness, you’ve got a much bigger gap in your finances.”
Rosy is 20. For the past four years, she has struggled with homelessness, oscillating between friends’ houses, the streets, share houses and crisis accommodation.
“The longest I’ve stayed anywhere was eight months,” she said. “I’ve been stuck … and just not been able to find stable housing whatsoever or get out of homelessness.”
Rosy had to leave her family home because it was unsafe. She is living in emergency accommodation, and youth allowance has not been enough to cover share house living.
“Because of my age, and being on youth allowance, there’s literally no option for me,” Rosy said.
The chief executive of the Community Housing Industry Association, Wendy Hayhurst, agreed young people were missing out on spots.
“There’s no question that young people disproportionately miss out on both public and community housing,” she said. “While we have an increasing number of community housing organisations providing specialist housing and support to young people, we need many more youth tenancies.”
The head of policy at Melbourne City Mission, Shorna Moore, said more and more young people were trying to access the mission’s services.
She said a coalition of 160 member organisations across the housing sector was calling for targeted subsidies to equalise rents with older tenants, increased commonwealth rent assistance for young people experiencing homelessness, and 15,000 dedicated youth spots.
“If we can’t get this right, then we are failing on the most fundamental human right, which is housing children,” she said.
The executive director of Anglicare Australia, Kasy Chambers, said the other key aspect was that Australia had not built enough social homes, putting pressure on the private market and adding to homelessness.
The proportion of households living in social housing fell from 4.7% in 2013 to 4.1% in 2023. Chambers put the shortfall at 640,000 homes.
“Australia has a massive shortfall in social housing, and that shortfall is hurting young people,” Chambers said.
“We are calling on the government to build 30,000 social homes every year for the next two decades until we end the shortfall, and ensure everyone who needs a home can get one.”
Rosy has now started advocacy work at FrontYard, the youth homelessness shelter in Melbourne. Asked about what she would do if she got a home, what she would study or where she would like to work, she paused.
“I just want to get my life started,” she said.
