‘Things are not going well’: voters want housing | Australian Markets

Australians see growing homelessness as a signal of societal decline, which may make housing motion one of the most important vote winners on the federal election.

The nation’s housing disaster is shortly evolving into a emergency with 40 per cent of Australians from 24 battleground seats witnessing an increase in homelessness of their communities during the previous 12 months, Redbridge polling discovered.

As a key contributor to the fee of dwelling, housing was anticipated to be one of essentially the most urgent issues on the federal election.

However this heightened awareness has turned the difficulty into a mark of society’s ills.

“It’s very much symbolic of generational wealth inequality and indicative of a feeling of economic disparity and disempowerment,” Redbridge director Simon Welsh advised AAP.

“There’s this broad sense that things are not going well: we’re seeing Nazis in the street, we’re seeing anti-Semitism, we are seeing our hospitals under pressure, we are seeing our roads deteriorate.

“On this broader sense of social and financial decline, homelessness turns into one other knowledge level.”

Policies that would prevent Australians from sleeping rough are popular across the political spectrum.

Almost nine in 10 respondents supported increasing investment in frontline services for those fleeing domestic violence, and children who are unable to safely return to their families. Eight in 10 back funding for organisations that help homeless people stay housed.

“The associated fee-of-living disaster is so deep and people’s rents are taking up a lot of their incomes that people really feel very close to homelessness,” Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin told AAP.

“Seeing people who’re homeless in all probability reminds them of that vulnerability.”

Yet more than 120,000 Australians were not getting the support they need when they encounter homelessness, the organisation’s analysis has found.

Politicians have instead focused on housing affordability for those with a home loan after the Reserve Bank cut interest rates on Tuesday.

But affordability remains a priority issue for most Australians, regardless of their living situation.

About 90 per cent of renters, 73 per cent of mortgage holders and 61 per cent of people who owned their houses outright said housing affordability was at least somewhat important to their vote.

The latter group, in particular, harboured concerns for their children and grandkids.

Only 11 per cent of Redbridge survey respondents gave the federal government a good rating on their housing affordability performance while more than half rated them negatively.

Voters believed politicians were “compromised”, in keeping with Mr Welsh.

“They’re a number of property homeowners who own rental properties,” he stated.

“It does appear to be this disconnect that’s stopping reform.”

Many also became sceptical when governments were too focused on housing targets rather than reform.

The government has committed to build thousands more in social housing, increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance and aims to construct 1.2 million new homes by 2029.

Ms Colvin welcomed more of these investments and urged each main events to decide to change.