The budget process is a yearly demonstration of government priorities, showing what it truly cares about and to what extent. Follow the money, as they say.
Shelter NSW strongly supports the NSW Government’s commitment to addressing the lack of ‘decent’ housing in NSW by delivering more housing that is ‘affordable, healthy, accessible, well-designed, secure, safe and appropriate for the household’ – as per the words of the Homes for NSW Strategy 2025-2035.
The upcoming 2026-27 NSW Budget provides an opportunity for NSW Government to demonstrate that it truly cares about addressing the housing crisis and improving housing outcomes for people living on lower incomes by significantly investing in a secure home for all, starting with social housing.
Ahead of the 2026-2027 budget, Shelter NSW is calling for a $3bn investment package in non-market housing focused on four key investment areas:
- Restoring the social housing safety net by investing $2 billion p.a. in building and buying new social housing until stock reaches 10% of total housing stock in NSW.
- Maintaining, upgrading and retrofitting existing social housing stock by investing $600 million in energy efficiency and accessibility upgrades and major repairs of ageing properties.
- Preventing and addressing homelessness through a $410 million ‘Ending Homelessness Action Plan’ including $160 million p.a. of operational funding for (a) specialist homelessness services and (b) a fully funded ‘Housing First’ program for people with high and complex needs as well as $180 million of capital funding for ten 40-unit ‘Youth Foyers’.
- Monitoring and enforcing regulation of the private rental sector through a total investment of $25.7 million p.a.
You can read Shelter NSW’s full pre-budget submission on our website.
Beyond the statistics and detailed policy proposals that we make, there needs to be a strong resolve from government, community, and the private sector to act. We reproduce below an edited version of Shelter NSW pre-budget ‘call to action’.
If not now, then when?
Behind the statistics are the lives of real people, struggling every day to survive, forced to live on the street, in the bush, in their vehicles, or to endure domestic and family violence and other abusive situations to keep a roof over their heads. Housing stress and homelessness impact both physical and mental health, preventing people from efficiently contributing to their community and the economy and pursuing their aspirations.
New South Wales in 2025 is arguably one of the wealthiest societies in the history of humankind. While it is not of its own making, the current response of NSW Government to this moral failure is simply not good enough. Our unfair and cruel housing system is not only a breach of human rights. It is already having severe impacts on productivity, transport and congestion, the ability of lower income households to undertake education and participate in community and the economy – in other words that we do not condone, it is a ‘waste of human capital’. If not taken seriously and addressed urgently, disparities in access to housing will undermine intergenerational equity so severely that it might start threatening social cohesion.
Shelter NSW has urged the NSW Government to take decisive action on the housing crisis by investing at scale in new social housing for well over two decades. We are left without words to once again ask NSW Government to invest in social housing at the level warranted by the severity of the housing crisis experienced by people living on lower incomes.
Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will deliver significant positive outcomes in addition to avoided costs in the community and social services sector and the health and criminal justice systems.
Investing in social housing until a ‘housing safety net’ of at least 10% of total stock is created will:
- Have a ‘brake effect’ on private rental market rents at the lower price points.
- Set benchmarks and demonstrate best practice to private sector landlords, creating market signals for them to ‘lift their game’.
- Lead and contribute to urban renewal, increase supply of high-quality housing, and the creation of inclusive and productive communities.
- Create local jobs in construction and act as a stabiliser and counter-cyclical macroeconomic investment.
The 2026-27 NSW State Budget is once again an opportunity for real action that will take political courage. It’s time for a significant departure from the failed policies that have over-relied on market supply, demand side subsidies, and tweaks to the planning system. A commitment to long term, at-scale investment in social housing is one of the policies to make the Minns Government remembered as the government who had the courage to leave behind failed policies and truly fix the housing system and its cruel, unjust impacts on people living on lower incomes.