KEY POINTS:
- Mother of five Sanin Phiusuwan is angry at federal politicians for the inaction on housing.
- She has been homeless for weeks, unable to find rental accommodation.
- The government claims it will build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years.
Sanin Phiusuwan doesn't see a way out of her situation.
“I just see us moving from place to place, to place to place,” she told SBS News.
Ms Phiusuwan and her five children have been homeless since Christmas Eve.
Since 28 days of temporary accommodation ended, the 34-year-old has been travelling around the NSW central coast with four of her kids in tow in search of somewhere to lay tents for her family.
One of her children is staying with her boyfriend, because all six are unable to fit into one car.
On Tuesday, they were forced to relocate again when a week-long stay at a caravan park expired.
It’s a world away from Canberra, where politicians are again debating what's affordable and effective when it comes to housing policy.
The federal government frames its plan to build 30,000 social and affordable homes as significant. The Coalition opposes it. Some crossbenchers argue it will barely make a dent.
The children before homelessness. Credit: Supplied
“I feel so angry with all of them," she said.
"We've lived with the empty promises on how they’re going to fix housing. It's not going to get better."
Ms Phiusuwan can't count how many rejections for rental properties she's received.
The family have been living in a tent since Christmas. Credit: Supplied
“If I'm not looking at rentals online, I'm fixing the tent. If I'm not fixing the tent, I'm running around trying to manage the kids, cook dinner, fix things. Who has that time?” she said.
Ms Phiusuwan said NSW Housing calculates she's able to afford more than $600 each week on rent — what it says is 50 per cent of her income. She describes that as simply “unachievable”.
She is qualified to work in the mental health sector but can't get work while the family is constantly in flux.
After struggling to enrol her children in school due to lacking a fixed address, Ms Phiusuwan has finally been able to secure them a place, but the family remains on the move.
“I can't get work because I don't know where we're going,” she said.
A housing policy from the government
Four hours away in Canberra, Labor's signature housing package is at risk of collapse.
, part of what it describes as an "ambitious" approach to housing.
But with , the Greens - which Labor will need to make its plan law - argue it's inadequate.
Greens member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather and independent senator David Pocock at a rally protesting the housing bill outside Parliament House in Canberra. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
And in a sign of the uphill battle Labor faces, the minor party and independents Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock were present at a rally outside Parliament on Tuesday, demanding the government go further.
What is Labor proposing?
Labor made the housing fund a key plank of its election campaign, pledging to build an average of 6,000 social and affordable homes annually for the next five years.
It's been referred to as the $10 billion housing plan, but it would actually see a $10 billion 'future fund' established.
Housing Minister Julie Collins says the bill is urgent. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
A total of 4,000 social homes would be allocated to women and children fleeing domestic and family violence, and another 10,000 affordable homes allocated to frontline workers such as police officers and nurses.
Why is the plan controversial?
Australia is in the grip of a major housing crisis, and even 30,000 homes is well short of the 173,000 shortfall .
Crossbenchers are demanding Labor goes significantly further, and the Greens say negotiations have gone "next to nowhere".
The minor party wants $5 billion for social housing each year — still less than the $15 billion called for by the National Housing Finance Investment Corporation — and greater protections for renters, who fill roughly a third of Australian households.
What's being said?
Housing Minister Julie Collins said vulnerable people "urgently" need the bill, warning the Greens against taking an "it's our way or zero" approach to the issue.
"It is the ... single biggest investment in social and affordable homes in more than a decade," she told ABC radio.
Ms Collins said future funds tended to have an annual return of 9 per cent, with increased supply also likely to ease rental prices.
Labor says its plan will create 30,000 homes over the next five years.
"The idea that we don't have the ingenuity and the wealth to do [more] is a disgrace, really, and that the government suggests isn't the extent of what they can do," he told the rally.
"What we have said to the government is when , then you can find at least $5 billion a year to build on public community and affordable housing."
Senator Pocock said that Australia was still facing a net loss in social housing, even when the future fund is factored in.
Independent Senator David Pocock at a rally protesting the housing bill outside Parliament House in Canberra. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
"This is about ensuring that we don't have frontline workers — the people who helped get us through the pandemic — living in caravan parks, [and] frontline workers having to think about living in their cars," he said.
Senator Thorpe stressed First Nations people were the most likely cohort to be impacted by homelessness. She said she would never have become a senator had social housing not existed when she was penniless and pregnant.
"Public housing saved my life growing up, it gave me and my boy an opportunity to have hope ... If you can't look after the blackfellas in this country, then you will not be able to look after anybody else," she said.
'I have to keep everything going'
Labor has until Thursday evening if it wants to get its housing bill passed this week, but it's likely to get other business — like the National Reconstruction Fund and its changes to the climate safeguard mechanism — done first.
If it isn't brought to the Senate this week, Labor will have another month to negotiate before parliament sits again.
For Ms Phiusuwan, who is still searching for a home, resting is not an option.
“I'm looking after everyone," she said.
"I'm doing everything and I can't stop. I have to keep everything moving."
