Politics often lags behind reality. But when the two are totally at odds, disaster can ensue. For proof, look no further than Australia's housing crisis, which has barely rated a mention in the election campaign.
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Anglicare Australia's Rental Affordability Snapshot, released this week, sheds more light on this gap between campaign rhetoric and reality.
We surveyed almost 46,000 rental listings from across the country. We found that 0 per cent were affordable for a person out of work, on the Disability Support Pension or on Youth Allowance.
Age pensioners are doing it tougher than ever, with less than 1 per cent of rentals in their budget. With more and more older people retiring into renting, this is a dire result.
A person on the minimum wage can afford less than 2 per cent of rentals. That assumes the renter is working full-time. People in part-time or casual jobs will have even fewer choices.
When we sifted through the handful of listings that were affordable, the situation became worse. We looked at rooms in decaying sharehouses, sheds and even a mattress in a kitchen. The latter was the only affordable rental for a person on JobSeeker in Sydney.
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You might be thinking that help is available for these Australians. But our calculations already include rent assistance and family tax benefits. We also assume that single people can live in a sharehouse.
It is in these conditions that millions of people will live for good - pensioners competing for rooms in sharehouses, people in full-time work on the brink of homelessness and young people with disabilities stuck in aged care because they can't find a home.
So why, when this crisis has been hurting so many people for so many years, isn't this a campaign issue? In the midst of a cost-of-living election, Australians are spending record amounts on housing. People in every age group are living in rental stress, and record numbers of voters say that housing is a top-tier election issue.
People are desperate for action. Instead, parties are promising more of the same. At worst, leaders simply tell renters that they should buy a house. At best, they offer first home buyer grants that overheat the market.
These grants are a band-aid solution. They won't do anything to help pensioners find an affordable rental, flood victims to get a home in their own community or the growing number of older women sleeping in their cars. Polls show that voters are rejecting them, hungry instead for action that truly fixes our broken housing system.
To say that housing in Australia is broken is an understatement. It is in meltdown, and we won't be able to truly fix it until we redesign our housing policies so that they work for everyone.
Anglicare Australia is calling on whoever wins the election to make renting more secure and more affordable with head-leasing programs, protection from unfair rent increases and a rent assistance scheme that actually works. We need income support payments raised above the poverty line to give more people a fair chance in the market. And most importantly, we need a big boost to affordable housing.
Australia's social housing shortfall is massive. We need leadership to provide 500,000 new social and affordable rentals across Australia. If we don't end this shortfall, we don't stand a chance of protecting renters on the lowest incomes from homelessness.
Voters want action, and the stakes at this election couldn't be higher. If this election becomes another lost opportunity to tackle the housing crisis, the Australian dream of home could become a nightmare for millions of people.
- Kasy Chambers is executive director of Anglicare Australia.
