Canberra may be one of the most affluent cities in Australia, but homelessness is on the rise in the ACT. Teenagers doss down on park benches. Down-and-outs huddle in their sleeping bags metres from the Legislative Assembly. And on cold, wet nights, others push trolleys containing all their worldly goods through the dark streets. This is the underbelly of the capital of one of the world’s most prosperous nations.
“Canberra is a very wealthy community; however, like any city, there is still hidden poverty, and people really doing it tough, sleeping on the streets, couch surfing, sleeping in cars,” said Anne Kirwan, Group CEO of Marymead CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn.
What is the homelessness situation in the ACT?
Five years ago, at the time of the 2016 census, there were 1,600 homeless people in the ACT; data suggests that homelessness has increased since then, and significantly so during the pandemic, according to Geoff Buchanan, from ACTCOSS (ACT Council of Social Service).
More than 4,000 people were assisted by specialist homelessness services in 2019–20, half of them (2,200 people) homeless on first presentation, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data states.
The number of people who received support from specialist homelessness services in the ACT increased from 1,606 people in July 2017 and 1,639 in March 2019 to 1,890 in March 2020 and 1,887 in March 2021 – 1,044 homeless and 813 at risk of homelessness.
But the real figure is likely to be higher. The AIHW data is not the complete picture, Mr Buchanan explained; not every homeless person accesses specialist homeless services.
“We might not see the true gravity of homelessness in Canberra, as it is often hidden and out of sight,” said Vinnies’ (the St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn) CEO Barnie van Wyk.
Across Australia, for every person living on the streets, she said, 13 more experienced different forms of homelessness: couch surfing, living in temporary accommodation or overcrowded dwellings, or sleeping in their cars.
“A home is a necessity,” said Rebecca Vassarotti, ACT Minister for Homelessness and Housing. “It is essential for people to have a good life; knowing there are people who do not have somewhere warm and dry to go at the end of the day is deeply distressing.”
Mark Parton, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness, said he had come across countless Canberrans in dire situations across the city, including a homeless girl sleeping under a stairwell, a young man sleeping under a bush, and a couple living in a tent by the lake whom he helped find emergency accommodation.
“It becomes very personal when you’re talking to these people every single day. Dealing with people experiencing real tragedy or major crisis is harrowing, and it makes you really appreciate having a comfortable and safe home.”
What causes homelessness in the ACT?
“The causes of homelessness in the ACT are as complex as the needs of the people experiencing homelessness,” said David Pearson, CEO of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (AAEH).
Poverty, unemployment, a lack of affordable housing, relationship breakdowns, escaping family and domestic violence, mental illness, declining health, sexual assault, addiction, gambling, and other traumas are among the factors he and Mr van Wyk identified that put people on the streets.
“When we lose our home, we lose a sense of security and stability that in turn supports us to make decisions about other things in our lives,” Ms Vassarotti said.
But housing affordability is the main cause of homelessness in the ACT, ACTCOSS and other community organisations agree. Or, as Mr van Wyk said: “Far too often, a safe and secure home is simply out of reach for many Canberrans.”
The ACT has the highest rents in Australia, more than $150 above the national average, Mr Buchanan said. (According to the Domain Rental Report (June 2021), the median weekly rent in Canberra is $630 for houses and $500 for units, compared to national median weekly rents of $477 for houses and $427 for units.) It has the highest rate of rental stress among low-income private rental households, at 73%. And the vacancy rate for rental properties in Canberra is only 0.8%.
“Prospective tenants have little choice or market power,” Mr Buchanan said.
There is a severe shortage of affordable and appropriate rental properties on the market for low-income households in Canberra, Anglicare Australia’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot found. In March 2021, a household on working age social security payments (JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Disability Support Pension) could not afford any of the 1,002 private rental properties advertised, and a household receiving the age pension or minimum wage could afford only an extremely small proportion.
“The extremely high cost of living has pushed thousands of Canberrans onto the streets,” said Mark Parton. “The rental market is notoriously hard to get into, and even if you can get approved for a property, the cost of renting in the ACT makes it unsustainable for anyone on inconsistent, low, or no wages.”
The demand for affordable rental homes is at a crisis point, says Andrew Hannan, CEO of CHC: Homes for the Community, Canberra’s largest provider of affordable and social housing. They receive 20 eligible applications for every property advertised.
“Due to the red-hot sales market, more and more landlords are opting to sell their homes, pushing the rental market higher. There simply is not enough affordable rental housing stock to meet the need in Canberra,” Mr Hannan said.
The ACT is 3,100 social housing properties short, ACTCOSS states; the social share of social housing (as a proportion of total households) fell from 7.6% in 2014 to 6.7% in 2020. Last month, there were nearly 3,000 (2,878) applications for social housing – up from 1,700 in late 2017 – and the average waiting time for standard housing is nearly four years (1,404 days or 3.8 years).
“This is the system that vulnerable Canberrans are meant to rely on, but they can’t even get in,” Mr Parton said. “These numbers alone show that something is seriously wrong in the ACT.
“This Labor-Greens Government has been in power for over 20 years, and when it comes to homelessness and a lack of public housing stock in the ACT, they have a lot to answer for.”
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