A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
shows that in 2006-07, priority housing allocations made up 42% of
all public rental housing and state owned and managed Indigenous
housing allocations, including 4,600 households that were given
priority due to homelessness.
Public rental housing and state owned and managed Indigenous
housing (SOMIH) are among the social housing programs that provide
affordable accommodation to eligible households whose needs cannot
be met by the private rental market.
'In a climate where homelessness, domestic violence, mental
illness and other complex needs have been identified as issues of
national importance, 42% of allocations equates to getting 12,000
needy families into suitable accommodation,' said David Wilson,
Head of the Institute's Housing Data Analysis Unit .
'For comparison, about 100,000 people identified themselves as
homeless at the 2001 Census,' Mr Wilson said.
The report, Who receives priority housing and how long do
they stay?, showed that younger households and single parent
families were more likely than other household types to be given
priority because of being homeless.
'The available evidence suggests that these priority tenants
entered into stable arrangements - households given priority due to
homelessness were just as likely as non priority households to be
in the same dwelling after two years,' Mr Wilson said.
New public rental housing and SOMIH households were
predominantly single people and single parent families who were
generally younger than households in the Australian population as a
whole.
Their income was about one-third the national median household
income.
Indigenous households were over-represented among new public
rental housing households.
The proportion of households given priority access to public
rental housing and SOMIH and the reasons for priority allocation
differed substantially across states and territories. This
reflected the differences in allocation policies and criteria
across jurisdictions.
Wednesday 13 August 2008
Further information: Mr David Wilson, AIHW, 02
6244 1202 or mobile 0419 251 763.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for the availability of Who receives priority
housing and how long do they stay?