August 2009 by Mark O'Brien, CEO Hardship & Residential Tenants Presentation to Community & Financial Hardship Conference

characteristics of private tenants   1 in 5 households (350,000+)   70,000 households in social housing  high level of single and single parent households  high level of low income households  85,000+ private renter households earn less than $500 per week  significant NESB component  60,000+ private renter households with LOTE speaker  new arrivals  less transition  40%+ renting for more than 10 years

unaffordable  high rents relative to low incomes  < 1:5 affordable for low income  increasing rents  12% for 12 months (< March 2008)  limited effect of rent assistance  35% of CRA recipients still in housing stress ( >100K households)  low wage singles excluded

38,000 (4.4%) 590,000 (67%) 23,000 (2.6%) 230,000 (26%) private rent public rent outright owner purchaser * Source: NATSEM, 2004 figure 1: estimated composition of housing stress*

inappropriate  poor standard  more repairs required and more structural defects (1:5 require repair)  less energy efficient (  1:10 no heating)  poorly located  affordable housing v job opportunities, social services etc.  overcrowding  16.5 % of households (v 2.7% owned)  poor security of occupancy  no reason eviction

inaccessible  discrimination  real estate agents and landlords  tenancy databases (  1.3m listed)  shortage of low cost rental housing  general vacancy rate 1.4%  est. 14,000 units in Victoria  negligible alternative supply  public housing targeting  community housing sector <1% of all existing housing tenures

private market failure is not new  Henderson Inquiry 1975  “Our research…showed that after meeting housing costs, renters of privately owned accommodation are substantially poorer than the rest of the population.”  >30 years of policy development and implementation  implementation of CRA (1982)  negative gearing (1985/1987)  public housing targeting (1990’s)  homeless services growth