More than 65 per cent of renters living in a coastal Northern NSW electorate are experiencing rental stress and that was before unprecedented floods tore through communities.
Almost 3400 homes have been declared uninhabitable and a further 6708 were inundated by floodwaters during the floods, State Emergency Services Commissioner, Carlene York confirmed earlier this week.
More than 1000 people are still living in emergency accommodation and 134 remain in evacuation centres, while thousands take refuge in the homes in families and friends.
In the electorate of Page- inclusive of Lismore and Woodburn – 68 per cent of renters already had difficulty meeting their rental costs. While in the neighbouring electorate of Richmond – including Ballina, Mullumbimby and Tweed Heads – 44 per cent of renters are experiencing housing stress.
A surge in regional rental prices – in part driven by tree changes during coronavirus lockdowns – as well as stagnant wage growth are creating a housing affordability crisis.
Tony Davies, CEO of Social Futures has been working on the ground with north coast NSW communities in the aftermath of the flood crisis.
“Sleeping rough is the tip of the homelessness iceberg,” Mr Davies said of the region with an average income twenty per cent less than the rest of the state. “Rental stress has been very bad and worsening for some time”.
Just three per cent of housing stock in the Northern Rivers region can be categorised as community or affordable housing.
“We had people camped in camp grounds and getting evicted during the holiday season,” Mr Davies said of the situation before floods hit.
In the towns of Lismore and Murwillumbah, entire businesses that employ a number of locals have now been decimated by floodwaters.
<img src=https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/”https://cue.wanews.com.au/webservice/thumbnail/article/6130995″ id=”_899d8d66-c052-4954-af49-d1bb3bb94e66″ capiid=”784a9b59d18817aa38f3c90943ebea65″ alt=”” caption=”Rental stress is experienced by more than 60 per cent of renters living in the regional NSW electorates – of Page, Cowper and Lyne – along the northern NSW coast. Source: Everybody’s Home “>
“All of these people that have lost houses and jobs,” Mr Davies said. “There are people who may have been lucky to live on a hill but their employment is gone”.
He described people in their 80s living in cars and cancer patients without a roof over their head.
A group of 150 organisations – including corporates, unions, community and faith organisations – have written a joint letter to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg calling on him to allocate social housing investment into the upcoming budget.
They are requesting 25,000 more social and affordable housing properties to become available each year and a 50 per cent increase to the federal rental assistance scheme.
Kate Colvin, national spokesman for the Everybody’s Home campaign said they are aiming to address a shortfall of 433,000 social housing properties around the country.
“It’s not possible to just pop up several homes in a very short period of time unless their had been pre-planning,” Ms Colvin said.
“If there was a pipeline of social housing being built it would be much easier to accommodate people when they are displaced”.
Everybody’s Home is calling on the government to build a housing resilience plan which also addresses the need for development to respond to natural disaster risks.
