Home Time submission to Senate Economics References Committee: Inquiry into Social Housing

Melbourne City Mission (MCM) and Homelessness Australia made a submission to the Inquiry into Social Housing, on behalf of the Home Time Youth Housing Coalition.

Social housing plays a vital role in preventing and ending youth homelessness. It is also a critical early intervention, providing young people with stability at a formative stage of life and helping to prevent housing insecurity from becoming entrenched, reducing future demand for social housing and other housing assistance later in life.

For young people experiencing homelessness, social housing is often not a permanent housing destination, but a pathway to stability and independence. Effective youth housing models provide safe, affordable housing alongside developmentally appropriate support, enabling young people to recover from homelessness, re-engage with education and employment, improve their wellbeing and establish long-term housing security outside of the social housing system.

This submission outlines the benefits of social housing for young people experiencing homelessness, the need for sustained growth in social housing supply, the importance of ensuring investment settings support youth housing, and opportunities to strengthen housing outcomes through targeted investment in dedicated youth housing and support.

Key recommendations:

1. Commit to increasing social housing to at least 10 per cent of Australia's housing stock and establish a funded 10-year national investment pipeline to support delivery of this target.

2. Establish a national target of 15,000 dedicated youth housing tenancies

3. Recognise youth housing as a distinct component of the social housing system

4. Embed an ongoing mechanism within Australia's social housing system to address the youth housing penalty

5. Maintain and expand ongoing Commonwealth investment through the Housing Australia Future Fund Crisis and Transitional Housing Program (HAFF-CT)

6. Include dedicated youth housing targets, minimum investment allocations or other accountability mechanisms within future HAFF-CT funding rounds

7. Expand grant-based funding pathways for youth housing developments

8. Ensure housing investment is accompanied by funding for developmentally appropriate support

9. Recognise social housing as essential social, health and economic infrastructure.

10. Recognise youth housing as an early intervention investment that improves intergenerational housing equity

Read the Submission here.