SANDRA MOON, HOST: Now the housing market, as you well know and keep telling us, is pretty tight at the moment. Low supply and increasing rents putting pressure on a lot of your budgets. But that also means it's even tougher for victim survivors leaving domestic violence situations, or for young people experiencing homelessness, to find a new place to live. Now, of course, there are local organisations that can help, but really more emergency housing is needed, and there will be more homes available soon with the Federal Government's Australia Housing Australia Future Fund building new crisis accommodation. Federal Labor MP Josh Burns is the Special Envoy for Social Housing and Homelessness and can tell you more. Good morning, Josh.
JOSH BURNS, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SOCIAL HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS: Sandra, thank you so much for having me on.
MOON: So, two new housing projects in our part of the world?
BURNS: That's right. We had this program of $1 billion for crisis and transitional housing right across the country, but what we know is that we can't just build these homes in the cities. We've got to build them in the regions and in beautiful parts of the Goulburn Murray region. We know how much there is a need for it. So, we've got two projects that we've already announced. One will be in Benalla Rural City and one will be in Greater Shepparton.
And I can't give the exact location because these are homes that will be there for families who are fleeing a violent home, especially women and children. But these are homes where we're partnering with the Victorian Government - one through the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and one through a local community housing provider that does really important work supporting people – because we know that too many people in the Goulburn Murray are having to make this terrible, terrible choice of do I stay in a violent home or do I try and find somewhere safe. And for too many people, there isn't anywhere to go, and so that's why we're making this investment in crisis and transitional housing.
We're also building 41 new homes in Shepparton, with construction starting next month, and that's for the more long-term housing. So that will be going to people who are fleeing a violent home but who need permanent housing, for veterans, for young people who would otherwise be homeless, those sorts of local people. So we are really trying to invest in the region. We know it takes a long time. We know this is a really hard and slow burn, but we have to be in there, in the game, and trying to do as much as we can.
MOON: And so, regardless of the amount of homes that will be available. I would presume, I don't know, I'm making an assumption here that those houses will already have been sort of allocated, for want of a better term?
BURNS: So the long-term housing will be done in partnership with Catholic Care, and they will be taking people right off the Victorian Housing register. So people who are saying that they need a home, and there's a whole lot of criteria that people need to meet in order to be on the housing register. But the homes that are what we're talking about today as well – these 13 homes across Benalla Rural City and Greater Shepparton – are homes that are for more short-term crisis and transitional housing. So these are for people who need somewhere to go quickly, who need to access services, who need potentially to speak to financial advisors, people who can help them with access to government services, some potential legal advice.
These sorts of services are the ones that we need to support people in possibly the worst moment of their lives, and so we're trying to increase the amount of crisis and transitional housing across the country, and we're also trying to increase the number of long-term social homes, and we're trying to build more homes as well for people in the private market. But we know these homes are so essential, and we really believe that making these investments in the local community is so important.
MOON: And you know, youth homelessness in say Albury, Wodonga and Wangaratta is incredibly high. What's going on in that field, and what is the Federal Government doing to sort of tackle, I guess, those root causes of homelessness?
BURNS: Well, youth homelessness is one of the really big challenges we've got. We actually have about 40% of people who present to homeless services right across the country – so not just in Albury, Wodonga, but right across the country – are under the age of 24. And what we know is that only about 5% of people who end up getting into some form of social housing end up being someone under 24.
And the reason why is that traditionally young people, because of the social security payments that they are on compared to say someone on the age pension or the disability support pension, are actually disadvantaged because the rent that the community housing provider would get is much, much lower. So one of the things that we're rolling out from the first of January next year is a youth housing supplement payment, which will hopefully mean that for some of the social housing that's in in that area, that young people will actually be able to get into it, and we're going to help support community housing organisations to actually house young people.
Often, if you're under 18, it can mean that you need supervision on site. You need specialist youth housing that has support and protections for young people. So it can be more expensive to run youth housing, but we're trying to make it possible. And with a mixture of investing in crisis and transitional housing, building more homes, and then also this youth housing supplement, we are hoping that this will make a difference. We think year on year, this will mean about 4,000 young people will get into a home who would otherwise be homeless.
MOON: Okay, well, terrific to hear about that. And obviously, you know, there is so much work in this space, as you've said, and it is ongoing. And the things that you've mentioned, and particularly this housing, will you know fill part of a gap. But what does still need to happen at a Federal, State, or even a local level to really tackle the issue of homelessness and lack of housing?
BURNS: Well, I think I think what we're talking about for the crisis and transitional housing is for people who, who through no fault of their own, don't have a home, and there aren't enough homes for them. And we need to make sure we're building homes so that if you're escaping violence or you're in a position where you've had a family breakdown and you're a young person, we need to make sure that we're supporting those people, but we also need to make sure that we're building more homes right across the country, and we also want to make sure that people can afford to buy their own home.
It's one of the big reasons why we've changed the tax settings so that negative gearing and capital gains tax subsidies aren't being used to outbid first home buyers, and that people who are buying their first home have a shot in actually acquiring a safe and secure home. Because the more people are pushed into the rental market, as you quite rightly said in the start of the program, and the more people are under financial pressure, the higher rents will be. So, we actually think that we need to think about housing first and foremost as somewhere where people need to have a have a safe and secure house. That this is not just an investment tool. This is not just a way in which people can accumulate an asset as some form of investment.
We want to make sure that the first priority is actually people have a safe home of their own, and we've actually supported just over 2000 people in the Goulburn Murray region with our 5% deposit scheme. So that's been a really successful program. Ultimately, we want to make sure that people have access to a safe and secure home of their own, and that's what we're trying to build as much as possible.
MOON: Josh Burns, Special Envoy for Social Housing and Homelessness. Thank you so much.
BURNS: Thank you so much, Sandra.