The Brisbane public hearing for the Greens-led Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity has today revealed the human cost of the housing crisis.
Evidence to the committee today showed:
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Astronomical house price increases are causing high levels of financial and emotional stress for households across the country, forcing people to make sacrifices, impoverishing people and causing homelessness.
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The current rental market is the most unaffordable in Australian history with some of the highest rates of rental stress.
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Australia's population of "forever renters" is on the rise as homeownership becomes increasingly out of reach.
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Renters, who make up a third of households, face deep housing insecurity, due to insecure rental contracts, unlimited rent increases and no-cause evictions.
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Canberra is currently the most affordable city to rent due to the introduction of rent caps.
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With 640,000 people in need of social housing, Labor's 55,000 social and affordable homes aren't making a dint.
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Total social housing stock (public and community housing) declined by 240 homes between 2024 and 2025, in large part as a result of demolition and privatisation of public housing, despite the Labor Government's flagship social housing policy the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).
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The Government's building of public housing won't meet existing demand. So far, 1,432 homes have been built under the HAFF while 190,000 people are on public housing wait lists.
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Homelessness is a killer. Just one night of experiencing rough sleeping or homelessness can be lethal. People without stable housing are dying thirty years younger.
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Up to 9 people a day are dying - for people with recent experience of homelessness. The majority of these deaths are preventable and avoidable.
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The cost of living crisis and interest rate hikes are contributing to increased rates of domestic and family violence, resulting in homelessness.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness and Senator for South Australia, Barbara Pocock:
"The evidence is clear: The housing crisis is killing people.
"Australia is a wealthy country. We cannot accept that nine people a day are dying because of the housing crisis. We need to get people off the streets and into safe and secure housing.
"Successive governments have prioritised property hoarding over building public, social and affordable housing. They have created an unfair housing system that benefits the top 20% instead of people needing a roof over their heads.
"Our housing system is not working for ordinary people. Big banks, big developers and property hoarders are profiting from a housing crisis that is literally costing people their lives.
"Renters around the country are facing some of the worst housing insecurity in living memory. Too many households are just one rent increase away from eviction or homelessness.
"Despite Labor claiming to spend big on social housing, we're actually going backwards and building less than before.
"In the 1960s, we had a government that built 18% of all homes in Australia. Now it's an investor's market. The Government needs to get back into the business of building affordable housing directly. It needs to start treating housing like a human right.
"We urgently need to build affordable and public housing to house the 190,000 people on public housing wait lists.
"The housing crisis is costing our country billions of dollars. The Government had the opportunity to actually fix the housing crisis in the federal budget but instead it chose to tinker around the edges.
"High interest rates are passed onto renters who don't have a buffer because they are the buffer for landlords. The Government must coordinate nationwide rent caps and a ban on no-cause evictions to protect renters."
