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Report on Government Services 2019

Part G, Section 18: Presentation revised on 27 June 2019

18 Housing

The presentation of this section has been updated since its release on 22 January 2019. To access material in the original format please refer to the archived copy

This section presents data on the performance of governments in providing social housing, including public housing (PH), State owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH), community housing (CH) and Indigenous community housing (ICH). The Indicator Results tab uses data from the data tables to provide information on the performance for each indicator in the Indicator Framework (the same data are also available in CSV format). You can download specific chart data directly from the visualisations by clicking in the graph area and using the 'download' menu, you can also select 'PDF' to download a PDF version of the charts.

As highlighted in the RoGS performance indicator framework all the current indicators reported in this chapter have comparability and/or completeness issues. Consequently, caution is required when comparing across jurisdictions or within a jurisdiction over time. The commentary in this section and footnotes accompanying the relevant data tables outline the comparability and completeness issues.

Skip to downloadable Housing data tables and supporting material

  • Context
  • Indicator Framework
  • Indicator Results
  • Indigenous Data

Objectives for social housing

The social housing services system aims to provide low income people who do not have alternative suitable housing options with access to social housing assistance that supports their wellbeing and contributes to their social and economic participation. Some forms of social housing aim specifically to contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community wellbeing through improved housing outcomes, particularly in remote areas and discrete communities. The social housing services system seeks to achieve these aims through the provision of services that are:

  • timely and affordable
  • safe
  • appropriate, meeting the needs of individual households
  • high quality
  • sustainable.

Governments aim for social housing services to meet these objectives in an equitable and efficient manner.

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Service overview

Social housing is subsidised rental housing provided by not-for-profit, non-government or government organisations to assist people who are unable to access suitable accommodation in the private rental market. Four forms of social housing are reported in this section.

Forms of social housing

  • Public housing: dwellings owned (or leased) and managed by State and Territory housing authorities. It is generally accessed by people on low incomes and/or those with special needs, and aims to provide a choice of housing location, physical type and management arrangements.
  • State owned and managed indigenous housing (SOMIH): dwellings owned and managed by State and Territory housing authorities that are allocated only to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tenants, including dwellings managed by government Indigenous housing agencies.
  • Community housing: rental housing provided to low-to-moderate income and/or special needs households, managed by community-based organisations that lease properties from government or have received a capital or recurrent subsidy from government. Community housing organisations typically receive some form of government assistance, such as direct funding for the provision of land and property, but a number of community housing organisations are entirely self-funded. The definitions of key terms section provides further information on different models of community housing.
  • Indigenous community housing (ICH): dwellings owned or leased and managed by ICH organisations and community councils. ICH models vary across jurisdictions and can also include dwellings funded, managed or registered by government. ICH organisations include community organisations such as resource agencies and land councils.

Crisis and transitional housing is another form of social housing, but is not able to be separately identified in this Report. Some crisis and transitional housing may be indirectly reported through the forms of social housing that are reported.

Roles and responsibilities

Social housing was funded and delivered under the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA)1 and related Partnership Agreements between the Australian Government and State and Territory governments2.

State and Territory governments have primary responsibility for delivering social housing services either directly through public housing and SOMIH or through funding community housing providers. ICH is generally managed by ICH organisations (although some ICH dwellings are managed by State and Territory housing authorities). State and Territory governments assumed responsibility for administering ICH in urban and regional areas, however arrangements varied across jurisdictions.

1. This section does not consider housing programs not provided under the NAHA (for example, those provided by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs or rental or home purchase assistance — the latter is discussed in sector overview G).

2. Services from 1 July 2018 are funded under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement following expiry of the NAHA and related Agreements on 30 June 2018. The most recent available data for this Report are for 2017-18.

Funding

State and Territory government net recurrent expenditure on social housing was $4.1 billion in 2017-18, an increase in real terms from $4.0 billion in 2016-17. In 2017-18, this expenditure included $3.0 billion for public housing and $193.3 million for SOMIH (table 18.1).

Australian Government funding for services under the NAHA was $2.0 billion in 2017-18 (see table GA.1 in the Housing and Homelessness Sector Overview) and is included in total State and Territory government net recurrent expenditure for housing and homelessness services. State and Territory government capital (non-recurrent) expenditure for social housing was $1.5 billion in 2017-18 (table 18A.1).

Size and scope

As at 30 June 2018, nationally there were a total of 398 582 households and 418 736 social housing dwellings (excluding ICH).

In addition, as at 30 June 2017 (latest available data), there were 13 505 households and 16 030 permanent ICH dwellings managed by government funded ICH organisations (tables 18A.3 and 18A.8).

While the number of public housing households has decreased over the last decade (328 736 in 2009 to 304 532 in 2018), there has been an increase in the number of households in community housing, from 38 524 to 80 233 (table 18A.4). This in part reflects transfer of some public housing stock (management and/or title) to the community housing sector (table 18A.2), in line with government policy to expand the role of community housing in the provision of affordable housing. Community housing organisations are working in partnership with the Australian, State and Territory governments, and the private sector, to increase the supply of affordable housing — many new social housing dwellings are or will be owned and/or managed by community housing organisations.

Some forms of community housing also allow tenants to participate in the management of their housing. Notwithstanding their common objectives, community housing programs vary within and across jurisdictions in their administration and the types of accommodation they provide. See the definitions of key terms section for details on the models of community housing.

Diversity of State and Territory government social housing

While State and Territory governments have similar broad objectives for providing social housing, the emphasis each places on an individual objective differs depending on historical precedents and processes for interaction with community sector providers. Private housing markets also vary across jurisdictions. Accordingly, policy responses and associated forms of assistance vary across jurisdictions. It is important to consider the differing levels and types of assistance provided in each State and Territory, their differing urban, regional and remote area concentrations (tables 18A.5–7), differences in eligibility criteria for the different assistance types and factors affecting waiting lists, when analysing performance information. Some information on the context for public housing, SOMIH and community housing is provided in tables 18A.47–49.

Eligibility criteria for access to social housing

Eligibility criteria for social housing vary between social housing types and between jurisdictions.

  • Public housing — in most cases, jurisdictions require that applicants are Australian citizens or permanent residents and do not own or partially own residential property. All jurisdictions, except Victoria, require eligible applicants to reside in the respective State or Territory. Most jurisdictions provide security of tenure after an initial probationary period and most jurisdictions have periodic reviews of eligibility (table 18A.47).
  • SOMIH — criteria are generally consistent with those for public housing once an applicant has been confirmed as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. Terms of tenure for SOMIH are the same as those for public housing in most jurisdictions (table 18A.48).
  • Community housing — criteria are generally consistent with those for public housing in each jurisdiction (table 18A.49).

Factors affecting waiting lists

State and Territory governments prioritise access to social housing in ways that generally reflect the urgent need to address homelessness and applicants’ inability to access appropriate private market accommodation. States and territories other than Victoria have adopted social housing waiting lists that are integrated across public housing, SOMIH (where applicable) and community housing.

Waiting times for social housing are impacted by the availability of suitable dwellings. Nationally at 30 June 2018, the proportion of rental stock occupied was 97.0 per cent for public housing, 95.3 per cent for SOMIH, and 95.1 per cent for community housing (tables 18A.9–11) — in 2017, 93.0 per cent of total ICH rental stock was occupied (table 18A.12). Occupancy rates are influenced by tenancy turnover as well as by housing supply and demand — dwellings that have, for example, reached the end of their useful life may require major redevelopment or replacement before being allocated to a new household.

‘Turnaround time’ is the number of days taken to allocate a newly vacated dwelling (that is fit for occupation) to a new household. The average turnaround time for vacant public housing and SOMIH stock varied within and across jurisdictions and over time (tables 18A.13–14) — noting that data are not comparable or complete across jurisdictions.

References

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2018, Housing assistance in Australia, www.aihw.gov.au/reports/housing-assistance/housing-assistance-in-australia-2018/contents/priority-groups-and-wait-lists (accessed 19 November 2018).

—— 2019, National Social Housing Survey: key results 2018, in press.

Yates, J. and Gabriel, M. 2006, Housing Affordability in Australia, Research Paper No. 3, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Melbourne.

Yates, J. and Milligan, V. 2007, Housing affordability: a 21st century problem, Final Report No. 105, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Melbourne.

The performance indicator framework provides information on equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and distinguishes the outputs and outcomes of housing.

The performance indicator framework shows which data are complete and comparable in this 2019 Report. For data that are not considered directly comparable, text includes relevant caveats and supporting commentary. Section 1 discusses data comparability and completeness from a Report-wide perspective. In addition to the service area's Profile information, the Report’s statistical context (Section 2) contains data that may assist in interpreting the performance indicators presented in this section.

Improvements to performance reporting for specialist housing are ongoing and include identifying data sources to fill gaps in reporting for performance indicators and measures, and improving the comparability and completeness of data.

Outputs

Outputs are the services delivered (while outcomes are the impact of these services on the status of an individual or group) (see section 1). Output information is also critical for equitable, efficient and effective management of government services.

Outcomes

Outcomes are the impact of services on the status of an individual or group (see section 1).

Indicator framework

An overview of the Housing services performance indicator results are presented. Different delivery contexts, locations and types of clients can affect the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of housing.

Information to assist the interpretation of these data can be found in the housing supporting interpretative material and data tables. Web references to the AIHW data quality statements for each social housing collection are available in the relevant data table. Data tables are identified by a ‘18A’ prefix (for example, table 18A.1).

All data are available for download as an excel spreadsheet and as a CSV dataset, refer to Download supporting material.

Performance indicator data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this chapter are available in the data tables listed below. Further supporting information can be found in the interpretative material and data tables.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing data
Table number Table title
Table 18A.16 Greatest need allocations as a proportion of all new allocations — SOMIH (per cent)
Table 18A.19 Proportion of new tenancies allocated to households with special needs — SOMIH (per cent)
Table 18A.23 Proportion of household gross income spent on rent — low income households in SOMIH, at 30 June (per cent)
Table 18A.26 Proportion of overcrowded households at 30 June — SOMIH
Table 18A.28 Proportion of overcrowded households at 30 June — Indigenous community housing (per cent)
Table 18A.29 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households living in overcrowded conditions, by housing program
Table 18A.30 Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households in public housing living in overcrowded conditions, by remoteness (per cent)
Table 18A.31 Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households in SOMIH living in overcrowded conditions, by remoteness (per cent)
Table 18A.32 Underutilisation in social housing at 30 June (per cent)
Table 18A.34 Proportion of SOMIH tenants rating amenity and location aspects as important and meeting their needs, 2018 (per cent)
Table 18A.37 Dwelling condition, SOMIH (per cent)
Table 18A.39 Dwelling condition, Indigenous community housing (per cent)
Table 18A.41 Customer satisfaction — SOMIH (per cent)
Table 18A.44 Real  government expenditure on SOMIH ($ per dwelling)
Table 18A.46 Net recurrent cost of providing assistance per dwelling — Indigenous community housing (2016-17 dollars)

Download supporting material

Note: An errata was released for section 18 data tables above.

Errata

The following data have changed for Section 18 Housing data tables:

  • Table 18A.2: Data for 2013-14 to 2016-17 for all states and territories (except the NT)
  • Table 18A.6: Total rent charged for 2017-18 for Australia
  • Table 18A.32: Data for SOMIH for 2017 for Australia
  • Table 18A.43: Net recurrent cost of providing assistance (excluding the cost of capital) per dwelling  for 2008-09 to 2016-17 for Australia and Payroll tax for 2008-09 to 2016-17 for all states and territories
  • Table 18A.44: Net recurrent cost of providing assistance per dwelling (2008-09 to 2009-10 for WA, 2008-09 to 2016-17 for Australia).