Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 32
31
RENTAL INSIGHTS:
UNHEALTHY HOUSING
UNHEALTHY HOUSING
Joel Dignam
Better Renting
Children’s health
threatened by cold
rental
XXX homes
XXX
Key findings
Why is it important?
Who is most affected?
In 2020, one in four
renters with children
had difficulty staying
warm in their rental
property in winter, with
the rate rising to over one
in three for households
on the lowest incomes.
This suggests that there
are a large number of
children whose health
may suffer from growing
up in cold rental homes.
A growing number of Australians rent
their homes, and this includes a growing
number of families with dependent
children. Around two in five rental
households in this survey were either
a ‘couple with children’ or a ‘one-parent
family’. In 1981, this figure was closer
to 30 per cent.13
Young children are particularly
vulnerable to the health impacts of cold
housing. While many rental households
face cold temperatures, the households
that contain children face additional
health risks.
Rental properties are generally less
energy-efficient, and this means that
the people in these properties are more
likely to experience indoor cold. For
renting households that identified
either as a one-parent family with
children or a couple with children,
24 per cent reported difficulty with
staying comfortably warm in winter.
Prolonged exposure to indoor cold
is bad for your health. Housing that
is too cold in winter contributes to
cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
In Australia, 6.5 per cent of all deaths
are attributable to cold, compared to
just 0.45 per cent attributable to heat.14
Such health impacts are typically on the
respiratory system. Previous research
has found, for example, that children
living in cold, damp and mouldy homes
are more likely to develop symptoms of
asthma, suffer from chest and breathing
problems, and experience increased
sickness and absenteeism that affects
educational outcomes.
The survey results indicate that as
household income increases, renters
with children are less likely to be
uncomfortably cold in winter. However,
even on higher incomes, almost one in
five houses still experience excessive
cold.
Rental properties are generally less energy-efficient, and this means that
the people in these properties are more likely to experience indoor cold.
13
14
Stone, Wendy, Burke, Terry, Hulse, Kath and Ralston, Liss. (2013) ‘Long-term private rental in a changing Australian private rental sector, AHURI,
Melbourne.
Gasparrini, Antonio, Guo, Yuming et al. (2015) ‘Mortality risk attributable to high and low ambient temperature: a multicountry observational study’,
The Lancet, vol. 386, no. 9991: 369–75.
