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Housing Stress

The Australian housing market is in crisis. Home affordability is at record lows and with surging rents, the opportunity to save to buy a home is impossible for many. In most Australian capital cities, vacancy rates in private rental now hover between just 1 and 2% (ABS 2008), while public housing waiting lists have swollen to 176,000 households (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2007).

For single mother families, who are among the poorest in the country and have now been further financially impacted by Welfare to Work and Child Support changes, the crisis in housing presents very serious ramifications. Single mother families are at the greatest risk of housing stress (defined as paying more than 30% of one’s gross income on housing costs).

At a glance:

  • Almost 2/3 of single mother headed families live in rental accommodation, and of those, 2/3 are in private rental (Renter households ABS 2008).

  • Single mothers are more likely than other women to be living in private rental housing (Loxton 2005: p.43).

  • Female headed sole parent families continue to be under-represented in home ownership statistics. Accordingly they are more vulnerable to long term financial insecurity and higher housing expenditure in the private rental market (Too Big to Ignore. Tually et al 2007).

  • An inability to secure and maintain affordable and appropriate housing is understood to be one of the key causes of poverty in single mother families (A hand up not a hand out. Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee 2004).

  • The consistency (timely and full payment) of child support payments has a direct bearing on the housing circumstances of single parent families (Child Support and Housing Outcomes. Natalier et al 2008)

  • Sole parents in receipt of Centrelink Rent Assistance and renting privately move house much more often than public tenants (Sole parents, social wellbeing and housing assistance. Burke et al 2002)

  • Family Violence continues to be a strong cause of homelessness for women and children with a great shortage of (and long waiting lists for) suitable emergency and crisis accommodation (Tually et al 2007).

  • Single mothers anecdotally report a high level of direct discrimination in the private rental market.

More information and resources regarding housing can be found under Links and Research.

References:

Loxton, D (2005), ‘What future? The long term implications of Sole Motherhood for economic wellbeing’, Just Policy, No. 35, March 2005.

Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee (2004) A hand up not a hand out: Renewing the fight against poverty. Report on poverty and financial hardship. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

Tually, S., Beer, A. & Faulkner, D. (2007), Too Big To Ignore: Future Issues for Australian Women’s Housing 2006 – 2025, Australian Housing & Urban Research Centre S.A.

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