In the lead-up to the federal election, a national alliance of housing, homelessness and welfare peak bodies has formed to ensure housing affordability and homelessness is on the agenda for election issues.

The alliance, formed by Homelessness Australia (HA), National Shelter, the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) and ACOSS, asks all Australians to stand up for change by signing the vote home petition calling for a national strategy to end the housing crisis by 2025.

National Shelter Executive Officer Adrian Pisarski said, “Housing costs are the single biggest expense in household budgets, and affordability keeps getting worse – we’re in a housing crisis. Developing a national plan to end the housing crisis is the most important issue for all parties in this election.”

Homelessness Australia Chair Jenny Smith said, “Every night more than 105,000 Australians are homeless; and 40 per cent of those are under 25. Unless we address the crisis of availability of affordable housing, we cannot solve this completely unacceptable problem.”

Cassandra Goldie ACOSS CEO said Current tax policy has fuelled Australian housing prices to record and unaffordable levels.

“Tax settings that encourage speculative investment and inflate house prices – like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount – must be addressed in the national plan,” said Goldie.