THE budget provides an $18 billion infrastructure commitment for dams, train lines and what have you but continues the decades-old neglect of social housing.
The Budget Paper No. 2, which contains all new spending measures, mentions social housing zero times and commits zero dollars.
Yet, according to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate of homelessness, people over 55 made up 16 per cent of the total homeless population in 2016.
The number of older homeless women increased by 31 per cent to 6,866 in 2016, up from 5,234 2011.
Although no more recent statistics have been published, it is obvious that with rising house prices and rents, the situation has become even worse since 2016.
With each passing year and each passing federal budget where social housing receives no significant funding boost, more and more Australians fall victim to homelessness.
The Everybody’s Home campaign has calculated that constructing 25,000 social homes in a year would cost $12.9 billion.
The Government’s only concern with housing is for first-home buyers. It already had a scheme in place to help get 20,000 first-home buyers into a home on a deposit of only 5 per cent, where a 20 per cent deposit is customary.
This scheme has now been extended to 50,000 over the next four years.
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