There I was, scanning through my Facebook wall, hoping to see something different, something to engage me, and there it was; a lady telling a housing group that SBS was doing a show on homeless women, and giving an email address to contact.
I don't know why, but I contacted SBS and the rest is history. For better or for worse, I was part of the show.
I had only a few days to think about it before the show was due to be taped. I quickly thought through what I would want to get out of the show. There would be no point in exposing myself to potential ridicule if there was no positive outcome.
The producer of the show questioned me a lot about how I got here. After some consideration, I decided it was no-one’s business but mine. We have all gone through some combination of bad luck, bad decision-making and bad health that impact the directions of our lives. It is pointless to dwell on the details. There is no dress rehearsal for life.
Having decided I did not want to explain how I got here, I decided that I did want to talk about what we can do from here. How can we solve this? Are there any solutions? Well, yes there are, but only with government support, and a lot of creativity.
Unaffordable Housing
Put simply, the vast majority of the homeless are homeless because of skyrocketing house and utility prices. This combined with falling incomes mean that increasing numbers of pensioners and low-income earners can no longer afford to either rent or buy.
Only a change in government policy that stops the house price madness can redress this situation.
I personally have no influence at this level, so have to leave it to people better positioned than I am to have an impact. Dick Smith has written an excellent on the issue where he identifies a range of possible causes for rampant inflation of house prices, and methods to change this. Whether he has them all right or wrong, I have no way of knowing, but he is better placed than I am to work at that level. This must be the highest priority for any government.
However, even if the causes of rampant housing inflation are solved today, there is no quick solution for those already forced out of the housing market. They need a roof over their heads, and now.
I read in a recent in the Sydney Morning Herald that 45 per cent of single women over 45 are living on the minimum wage or less. So that is 45 per cent of women over 45 who can no longer afford even a "bed sitter" - now euphemistically called a "studio apartment”. The figure for men is 25 per cent.
In Australia, the Lucky Country, we now have a substrata of our population who will never be able to afford to purchase their own homes, courtesy of the skyrocketing house prices, no matter how many hours a week they work at their low paid jobs.
This same group can no longer rent, as rent prices are pegged to house purchase prices. This is a new problem in Australia and is, as yet, not well recognised. It is already a serious issue that is steadily becoming worse. The people affected are perfectly sane and socially adjusted but simply cannot afford modern rental prices.
To repeat, even if housing affordability policy changes, it will take many years for the gap between affordability and low wages to be reduced to the point where low income families can afford suitable accommodation.
Housing support for the working poor
The only way to house the vast cohort of working and retired poor is for governments to construct a huge supply of low cost housing. And this is where the creativity comes in.
Flexible housing options
Current housing designs are potentially past their use-by date, and could be augmented with lower cost and more flexible alternatives. There is a burgeoning industry in the construction of prefabricated, eco-friendly housing that is very cheap by conventional house building standards, can be rapidly constructed, and is eco-friendly.
Community design
If this new style of housing is also placed within healthy planned environments, they become much healthier options for the residents than traditional shoe box style government subsidised housing, often built in dangerous, noisy and highly polluted neighbourhoods, on land where no-one else will live. With well-designed communities, health and welfare outcomes improve and social isolation is reduced.
Removing land prices from the equation
In one model (which is by no means the only model) councils and governments can be asked to provide the land for these developments so that no land needs to be factored into development costs. State governments can be asked to fund the building costs or grant loans to local councils or charities who manage the development and on-going supervision of the projects. Rents received eventually pay back the loan for the house building costs, at which stage the developed property belongs to the owner of the land - preferably the local council, which is then able to provide security of tenure for the tenants. There is a multiplicity of rent-to-buy/lifetime-lease options already out in the marketplace which can be applied on an "as needed" basis. Each development will be different.
If we can provide low cost housing that is both environmentally and human friendly for less than it costs to provide traditional housing - why don't we?
If we can provide low cost housing that is both environmentally and human friendly for less than it costs to provide traditional housing - why don't we? If that housing also improves health outcomes for all concerned, why aren't we?
Let's get together and start designing and developing one or more creative solutions for low-cost, environmentally sustainable, and humane housing alternatives. Let's get some real projects going and help support those already underway.
Please join me at and see what we can do.
Christine Kent is a guest on this week's Insight, looking at the rising number of older women experiencing homelessness | - Watch the full episode here:
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