At Shelter NSW, our overriding view is that the combination of housing policies from all levels of Government has produced persistently negative results for the people of NSW, but especially for those in the lowest 40% of income earners.
We are concerned about chronic and rising trends in homelessness, housing rental stress and insecurity as well as the impacts of poor-quality and poorly-designed housing, particularly on low income households.
Over three quarters of lower income renters in NSW are paying unaffordable rents (92% of very-low income renters in Sydney). Lower cost properties are being steadily replaced with new ones at higher rents, and new concentrations of disadvantage have been created across our major cities as low-income households are displaced. The NSW rental market is failing, forcing our most vulnerable citizens to go without essentials as well as contending with insecure tenancies. Climate change is disproportionately impacting lower-income households without the means to afford adaptation measures.Â
These trends, while appearing entrenched, are not, we believe, inevitable.