Those earning the $700 minimum wage will only be able to afford around 3% of rental properties, new report finds.
Do you think there is an affordable housing crisis in Australia?
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Yes indeed there is a crisis. There has been for sometime and part of the problem is a vast lack of public housing for those who are on low incomes.
I know lots of people who now share accommodation, just due to the cost pressure, that is too small really for the number in the household. I donât mean a bedroom is available for each person but I do mean some households where there are 4 and 5 people to a room. Some of this cost pressure doesnât come from rental cost alone but from utility costs and the other costs of living eg food, and transport.
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My biggest fear is the simplistic solutions being flaunted
More Money to New Starters and Low income Earners
We hear too much of people priced out of housing and even if they do >80% goes on housing utilities and food is always the last.
Families will miss multiple days of eating.
USA has food stamps for this reason for example,
Raising incomes and payments is ridiculous solution for many reasons
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if someone on low income or new start gets 20% more money, I the person on livable income will just end up paying more for the property we compete on
driving up prices to leave status quo; a low income earner without a home.
Winner Landlords -
not all low income or new start earners are equal (I may have a very wealthy supportive family for food and accommodation, another may have nothing)
Winner the 20-30yo with wealthy family support -
If my salary was to raise $10 a week I could buy a meal for 4 people at a supermarket, however a bulk buyer with $100 could feed far more efficiently with scale >40 people
We need to start substituting price inflation of payments and incomes with real products at economy of scale
Utilities Housing Food and Transport for low income and New starters
We need to look at supplementing the existing of lower incomes or payments instead of perpetual price inflation.
âConcession Rates are not good enoughâ
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âFree Public Transportâ with an electronic Centrelink Low income card
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weekly basics food deliveries "Box with Bread Milk Pasta Canned foods & some Fresh Produce (Aussie Farmers Direct infrastructure for example)
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More public housing; subletting properties with services already in place.
the governments need to start negotiating with landlords (if the government refuses to or doesnât own properties.)
and negotiating with the utilities (bulk discount flat rate)
and where landlords offer government (Long term rights to sublet; tax deductions and investments in solar etc)
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This assumes that one (household) will only be earning just under $700 per week. It also does not consider the government support which is often in addition to this minimum wage, especially for families) or a real family situation where there may be more than one income earner per family.
I beleive using the minimum wage in isolation, without considering the bigger picture, is a little deceptive and potentially misleading.
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I like the idea of there being a degree of âprotected food moneyâ as part of pension payments. I think it would still cause problems, whether it would be additional (prices still go up because âhey you have extra money nowâ) or replacement (âhey theyâre taking my money and giving me garbage I donât like/canât eat/could get more for less if I had the moneyâ).
Social Housing to lower the cost of rent in general would be nice. If there was a big investment in this, I think weâd see a bit of a burst in the property market (many are built on high rental returns) and the collapse of a lot of investment mortgages - potentially leading to an increase of people in the rental market as their own mortgages collapse under contractual obligations or shortfall weight. 
But hey! At least theyâd have somewhere to go?
True, but we also have to be mindful of it because there are an awful lot of single people households (about 25% according to the last census) out there and unless youâre popping out babies to get that extra government cheese, youâre not getting anything extra from the government on a $700pw income. You earn too much.
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We see this card used a lot here. Iâve never looked into the finer detail of it, but it forces people to spend whatever the card âhas on itâ only on essential items - not just food, but certainly not tobacco and alcohol âŠ
This is a big issue with lots of aspects and views that I donât understand the specifics of, but when you see the state of some segments of the community in public and rental housing here in Central Australia, it cannot be denied that something has to be done to protect the more vulnerable people, especially children who usually have no input into family spending decisions.
This is a little off topic in a way, but also not - fundamental human needs - food, shelter etc.
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Ahh the basics card. Fundamentally a brilliant idea but understandably somewhat controversial. I personally think its much better than food stamps. Maybe it wouldnât be such a problem if everyone had them issued instead of just some people (but then thereâs the issue of it not being accepted by some places leading to wasted money blargh).
An interesting problem with the basics card is that you can actually make there be $0 on it by over-committing your money via places that can use Centrepay (like furniture rental companies, rent and utilities).
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