Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 21
RENTAL INSIGHTS:
HOUSEHOLDS
UNDER STRAIN
Who is most affected?
People with a range of impairments
—sensory impediments, intellectual
or developmental disability, mobility
limitations—are all at risk in the private
rental market, and the data show
that those in the workforce are in an
especially precarious position.
SDA housing is targeted to
approximately 6 per cent of NDIS
recipients—essentially those whose
needs could not conceivably be met
within the market. The remaining 94 per
cent, however, remain dependent upon
market-based housing, exposing them
to the consequences of a COVID-19
affected rental sector.
What is the relevance
to Australian policy?
These findings underscore, once
again, the compound and complex
disadvantage experienced by people
with a disability in Australia’s housing
market.
Critically, there is no single risk factor
making the housing of this group so
challenging. Rather, disadvantage
stems from a combination of factors
—labour market disadvantage, low
incomes, high housing costs and
insecure tenure—coming together
to entrench marginality.
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It is clear from the data that people
with a disability have less resilience in
responding to shocks in the housing
and labour markets when compared
with the population as a whole.
There is a clear need to provide targeted
accommodation that allows people
with a disability to build their lives away
from the shadow of eviction, escalating
housing costs, and insecure household
circumstances.
Many people with a
disability remain in
pre-NDIS supported
accommodation or
pay a significant
percentage of their
income in rent to
private landlords.
