Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 46
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RENTAL INSIGHTS:
A COVID-19 COLLECTION
New knowledge and
a new housing agenda
for a ‘new normal’
Andrew Beer
and Rebecca Bentley
Across the globe, governments,
researchers, and commentators have
raced to understand the nature and
depth of the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on the economy, society,
households and individuals. There
is a shared, and broadly discussed,
awareness of the magnitude of the
headline impacts on communities, but
what remains unseen are the deep, finegrained, challenges to health, wellbeing
and prosperity that have permeated
every nook and crevice of our lives, as
well as the way we understand our place
in the world. For many experiencing
prolonged lockdown, our homes have
become our world.
The past six months
have highlighted
how quickly so
much of what we
understand about
the operation of
our economy and our
society can change.
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Phibbs, P., p. 15
Beer, A., p.19
Power, E., p.21
Baddeley, M., p.9
Bentley, R., p23 and Kulik, C. and Sinha, R., p. 25
Vij, A., p.11 and Stephens, M., p.13
London, K., p.33
Holst, H., p.39
While we know that many COVID-19wrought changes will be ongoing—
nowhere will this be more pronounced
than in our housing. COVID-19 does
not make people homeless, but the
changes it brings are having profound
effects—loss of employment,
reduced incomes, greater inequality
—undermines individuals, their housing
security, their expectations around
accommodation and their socialisation.
This is inextricably linked to our health
and wellbeing. It is not surprising,
therefore, that our rental stories reveal
a sector requiring significant policy
attention. Many Australians are faring
poorly in this sector during COVID-19;
‘the inequality accelerator’19. This
includes people with disabilities20,
older people on low incomes21, the
recently retrenched22, and people
working from home23. While tenants
have options (negotiating with their
landlord, withdrawing their super) these
actions are not straightforward or
risk-free generating anxiety as people
look towards the future24. In the bigger
picture—reform to the sector in terms
of standards and design25 are likely to
make tenants feel similarly about their
rental property as they would about a
home they are purchasing26.
The past six months have highlighted
how quickly so much of what we
understand about the operation of our
economy and our society can change.
In a world of near-unlimited personal
travel and the movement of goods and
services around the globe, seismic
change can unfold quickly and with
devastating impacts. In Australia we
have watched with shock the rapid
unveiling of coronavirus outbreaks
first in China, then Italy, Spain, the
United Kingdom and the US, while
simultaneously responding to the rapid
growth in cases here in the first half of
2020 and the subsequent resurgence of
infections in Victoria from June through
to September.
Four clear lessons have emerged over
the past 12 months as we consider
how Australia—and other nations—
have responded to these unexpected
environmental shocks:
• The research community needs to
act quickly; more quickly than we are
used to. Accurate, up-to-date and
finely grained data is critically needed
to inform decision-making. This
urgency challenges the established
research cycle of 12-month funding
rounds and extensive consultation.
The best example of a change in
modus operandi has been seen in
vaccine development with the fasttracking of vaccine trials designed to
meet the challenges of delivering safe
vaccines in timeframes previously
thought inconceivable. In a similar
way, in the social and health sciences,
rapid reviews of evidence and
targeted data collection are the
‘new black’ of research.
