Housing Policy Summary

Affordable housing: a right not a privilege

The Greens believe that housing is a basic human right. Every person is entitled to have access to affordable, appropriate, safe and secure housing.

More than 267,000 low-income households in NSW live in housing stress and pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs. The escalating costs of renting or buying a home when coupled with the decreasing availability of social housing results in growing numbers of people
experiencing housing-related poverty, inappropriate housing, or homelessness.

The waiting list for public housing is 70,000. Yet, despite the demand for secure and affordable housing, the NSW Department of Housing has been building fewer homes and has made it even harder to be eligible for public housing.

Private renters have no security of tenure and rents are predicted to rise. Boarders and lodgers still have no tenancy rights at all, leaving then with no protection against eviction. Boarding houses are disappearing.

Home ownership – particularly for younger people – is diminishing as house prices move out of reach of the average person.

Homelessness is more and more common. The serious shortage of crisis accommodation and longer term housing with adequate support leaves many vulnerable people – the mentally ill, the young, and the unemployed – living on the streets, in squats, or in cars.

Residential parks have provided a source of affordable housing for many low-income and elderly people. Yet many people are being forced out as developers rezone and redevelop the land for more expensive housing.

The Greens Housing Policy includes commitment to:

• an additional $900m over three years for social housing;
• legislation to create tenancy rights for boarders and lodgers to prevent arbitrary eviction;
  
• adequate funding for emergency, youth and refuge accommodation and long-term, supported accommodation for those who have high needs;
  
• legislation to require at least 10% affordable housing in all new developments;
  
• support for limited equity housing co-operatives, multiple occupancy and other low cost housing options; and
  
• increased protection of residential parks to stop the land being sold for redevelopment.