Homeless young people are being denied housing because policy settings make it more profitable for providers to rent to older Australians.
New research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found housing providers stood to lose 46 percent of possible rental income if they chose a young person over an adult on a higher social security payment.
Study author Ryan van den Nouwelant said this “youth housing penalty” discouraged community housing providers from offering tenancies to one of the almost 40,000 unaccompanied 16 to 24 year olds without a home in Australia.
Dr Van de Nouwelant said recent changes by the Federal Government to Commonwealth Rent Assistance had also left many young people experiencing homelessness worse off due to the formula used.
He said the youth housing penalty was a result of mismatched policy settings and was one of the factors behind the low rate of social tenancies being offered to young people, currently less than three percent.
“Young people experiencing homelessness are often a priority in terms of allocations to community housing, but social security and social rent setting policies create financial barriers to housing this group.
“Modest changes to current policy settings can remove these barriers and improve the capacity of the community housing sector to support vulnerable young people.”
Dr Van de Nouwelant said reform options included targeted subsidies to equalise rents with older tenants, increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance for young people experiencing homelessness, and factoring in lower rental income when the Federal Government considered housing proposals.
Melbourne City Mission Head of Policy, Advocacy and Government Relations Shorna Moore said UNSW’s research reflected the reality for children and young people with nowhere to live.
“We support thousands of children and young people who are alone, homeless and have nowhere else to go. Penalising community housing providers for offering safe homes to vulnerable young people is a truly perverse outcome of the current system,” Ms Moore said.
Community Housing Industry Association CEO Wendy Hayhurst said community housing organisations wanted to be able to provide homes to more young people.
“We know that a stable, secure, safe and affordable home is the foundation young people need to thrive. So we urgently need to overcome the structural issues that make it much harder to make housing for young people financially viable.”
Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin said stronger national action was needed.
Ms Colvin said the Home Time Youth Housing Coalition of over 160 organisations was calling for 15,000 dedicated tenancies with support for young people nationally and action to remove the youth housing penalty.
