Notes on the data: Housing, rent assistance and vehicle access

Social housing: Dwellings, 2021

Policy context: Social housing includes all rental housing owned and managed by government or non-government organisations (including non-profit); social housing rents in general are set below market levels and determined by household income [1]. The social housing services system seeks to provide low income people with access to social housing assistance; supporting their wellbeing and contributing to their social and economic participation by providing services that are timely and affordable, safe, appropriate (meeting the needs of individual households), high quality and sustainable [2]. The distribution of public rental housing remains an indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage. Public housing tenants are increasingly welfare-dependent (especially single parents; those who are unemployed, aged or with a disability; and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) and public housing stocks have declined substantially since 1996.

There is a clear link between cold homes and ill-health, where existing conditions such as respiratory illnesses or mental health conditions are exacerbated [3].

The AIHW reported that:

At June 2021, there were 417,800 households in the four main social housing programs, increasing from 378,600 in June 2008.
The number of households living in public housing decreased from 331,100 in 2008 to 288,300 in 2021.
The proportion of households living in social housing in Australia decreased from 4.8% in 2011 to 4.2%, in 2021.
In 2021, over 4 in 10 (44%) households in public housing had been in their tenancies for 10 years or more [4].

At June 2021, the number of households on the waiting list (excluding transfers) were:

163,500 households on a waiting list for public housing (up from 154,600 at June 2014).
12,100 households on a waiting list for State owned and managed Indigenous housing dwellings (up from 8,000 at June 2014) [4].

Of those applicants on the waiting list at June 2021:

There were 67,700 greatest need households on the waiting list for public housing; an increase from 43,200 at June 2014.
There were over 6,500 greatest need households waiting for State owned and managed Indigenous housing dwellings, up from 3,800 at June 2014 [4].

Moreover, housing affordability has declined in Australia as increases in median income has not kept pace with growth in median mortgage and rental payments. From 2001-2011, median mortgage and rental payments increased by 100 percent whereas median household income increased by only 60 percent in the same period [5].

At the 2021 Census of Population and Housing, the largest number of social housing rentals were rented from a State or Territory housing authority (274,535 dwellings), with a further 73,483 rented from a community housing provider (e.g., a housing co-operative, community or church group), or 12.2% of all rented dwellings [6]. Notably there were some 25,000 fewer of these dwellings rented from a State or Territory housing authority in 2021, when compared with 2016 – and over 22,000 more rented from a community housing provider [7].

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2017) Housing Assistance in Australia 2017, accessed 5 December 2017. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/housing-assistance/housing-assistance-in-australia-2017/contents/social-housing-tenants
Productivity Commission (2017) Housing and Homelessness in 2017 Report on Government Services, accessed 5 December 2017. Available from: https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2017/housing-and-homelessness/housing
Public Health England (2014) Local action on health inequalities: Fuel poverty and cold home-related health problems.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2022) Housing assistance in Australia. Households and waiting lists, accessed 9 September 2022. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/housing-assistance/housing-assistance-in-australia/contents/households-and-waiting-lists
Muir, K. et al. (2017) The opportunities, risks and possibilities of social impact investments for housing and homelessness, AHURI Final Report No.288. Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census of Population and Housing General community profile Australia Canberra ABS 2022. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/census/guide-census-data/about-census-tools/community-profiles; accessed 25 August 2022
ABS. 2016 Census Community Profiles. Canberra: ABS; 2017 Mar, accessed 8 August 2017. Available from: http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/communityprofile/036?opendocument

Notes: The data include households in occupied private dwellings only.

Private dwelling: A private dwelling can be a house, flat or even a room. It can also be a caravan, houseboat, tent, or a house attached to an office, or rooms above a shop.

Social housing: Occupied private dwellings rented from the government housing authority, or community housing provider (housing co-operative, community or church group).

The numerator excludes the 1.5% of dwellings for which tenure type was not stated: however, these records are included in the denominator.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Social housing dwellings

Denominator: Total occupied private dwellings

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on the ABS Census of Population and Housing, August 2021.