Types of housing covered in the 2021 Plan Social housing is housing provided outside the market and allocated to tenants who meet various criteria of need. It includes: • public housing provided and managed by state and territory housing authorities for people on very low incomes who are considered to be in greatest need. Rent is set as a proportion of income. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing managed by some state and territory governments or by community housing providers for the benefit of the community. Rent is set as a proportion of income. • community housing managed by not-for- profit community housing providers. Access and rent are determined by tenant income and other criteria. Affordable rental housing refers to dwellings provided at below-market rent to low- to moderate-income tenants, including key worker accommodation. Rent is usually determined as a proportion of the market rent for similar dwellings. |
Safe, adequate and affordable housing is a vital component of social infrastructure.
It is crucial for physical and mental wellbeing and it can reduce the costs that governments would otherwise pay for health, Justice and emergency services.46
In 2019-20, total Australian Government and state and territory government recurrent expenditure for social housing and specialist homelessness services was $5.3 billion, around 1.9% of total government expenditure.47
Despite this, the proportion of households living in social housing in Australia decreased from 4.7% in 2010 to 4.3% in 2019.48 More social housing is required to keep pace with the growth in the overall number of households in Australia.