2016 BUDGET | Mixed Budget for vulnerable Australians

Mission Australia have said the Budget missed an opportunity to address homelessness.

“Disappointingly, there is nothing new in the Budget to address the rising rate of homelessness or the acute shortage of social and affordable housing,” Mission Australia CEO, Catherine Yeomans said.

“The government has missed this opportunity to provide certainty to around 800 services across Australia working to prevent and respond to homelessness.

“We now strongly urge all governments to work together through COAG as a matter of urgency to develop a new agreement to ensure certainty for specialist homelessness services.”

Yeomans said the government did not include in the Budget an extension for the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. This means that these services which help about 80,000 homeless people each year – face an unknown future.

“Current rates of homelessness are unacceptable for a prosperous country like Australia. Of particular concern are the more than 44,000 children and young people who are homeless,” said Yeomans.

“A crucial factor in the rising rates of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing in cities and towns across the country. Again, the Government has missed the opportunity of the Budget to provide any measures facilitating the growth of necessary social and affordable housing.

“Affordable housing is critical national infrastructure and national leadership is required. We call on the Government to announce real measures to stimulate growth of affordable housing supply.”

St Vincent de Paul Society CEO John Falzon said, “A good budget would not leave people who are unemployed or insecurely employed to wage a daily battle for survival from below the poverty line, when even the likes of the OECD and KPMG call for an increase to Newstart.

“It would ensure that no one misses out on a place to live, a place to work, a place to learn and a place to heal. As things stand, however, we see no action to help the almost 200,000 households waiting for social housing and the 1 million in housing stress.”