Housing affordability is a major concern for young people, especially those facing disadvantage. For example: In June 2016, the median rent for a two-bedroom unit in Melbourne’s inner suburbs was higher than the entire combined Youth Allowance of two young people. Even in Melbourne’s more affordable outer suburbs, the median rent on a two-bedroom unit would have consumed 73% of two Youth Allowance payments. The median rent on a unit in regional Victoria was more affordable (consuming ‘only’ 55% of two Youth Allowance payments), but would be offset by higher travel costs and limited local access to education, training and services. In Building the Scaffolding, a 2013 survey of 213 Victorian youth service providers, YACVic and the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) found that crisis accommodation and transitional housing were by the far the most common areas of unmet need cited by Victoria’s youth services. Between 1994-95 and 2013-14, the rates of home ownership amongst Australians aged under 35 fell from 48% to 34%. The metropolitan local government areas with the lowest median costs for mortgages and rent are mostly located in the ‘growth’ or ‘outer’ suburbs of Melbourne, where infrastructure and job opportunities are relatively scarce. As these communities also tend to have higher than average birth rates, they will be expected to meet the needs of large cohorts of young people in the future. Several cohorts of young people face particular barriers to accessing adequate housing. For example, young people with disabilities are at high risk of being dependent on their families or living in group homes, as they face combined barriers of accessibility and affordability. While the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will increase the support available to live independently, the affordable, accessible housing stock does not always exist. Wiesel et al (2015) estimated that the NDIS will create unmet need for affordable, accessible housing for 83,000-122,000 Australians. We have some concerns about the definition of affordable housing adopted by Infrastructure Victoria in the draft 30-year plan:
‘[A]ffordable housing is that which reduces or eliminates housing stress for low-income and disadvantaged families and individuals to assist them with meeting other essential basic needs on a sustainable basis, while balancing the need for housing to be of a minimum appropriate standard and accessible to employment and services. This definition has been taken from the Commonwealth Council on Federal Financial Relations Affordable Housing Working Group: Issues paper January 2016. Under this definition, affordable rental housing is provided at a subsidised rent to households through access and affordability requirements set by government. The broader issue of the affordability of housing for home owners and renters is not covered under the strategy as it does not relate to the ‘most vulnerable’ and applies to privately owned assets.’ (p.91) We submit that this definition is not adequate to the purpose of state-wide community planning. For example: ‘Reducing’ housing stress or ‘assisting’ people to meet their other basic needs does not guarantee that people will be able to meet their housing costs and other essential needs. Therefore, it does not guarantee affordability. People in receipt of state housing assistance may still experience significant stress in meeting their housing costs and other essential costs. Not everyone experiencing housing stress is receiving state housing assistance. The affordability of private rental properties and home ownership must figure in a housing plan. Most people on low incomes are not living in public housing. Moreover, the high costs of private rental housing and the fact that young people are being ‘shut out’ of property ownership contribute to the shortage of rental housing that is both affordable and available to people on low incomes. We urge that Infrastructure Victoria work with leading community stakeholders including the Victorian Council of Social Service, Council to Homeless Persons and Tenants Union of Victoria to develop a more comprehensive and workable definition of housing affordability. Housing is generally considered to be affordable if the household members are not in financial stress after they have paid for their housing – but there are a range of measures used to determine affordability. One of the most widely used models states that a household in the