A recent report has shown that Australians are increasingly being pushed to the brink of poverty and homelessness due to the explosion in rent and dwindling supply of housing. While local towns are working against a trend of population decline, the lack of available housing is causing difficulty drawing people to the region, let alone leaving housing for those already there.

Chief Executive of Regional Development Australia Orana Megan Dixon said that while towns are eager to innovate, the existing supply of housing is working against them. 

“There’s a very narrow market in terms of putting property on the market, and a lot of stock is aging. One of the most common things we hear in Cobar is a modern fridge doesn’t fit into the hole within the house…there’s a whole issue of needing to refit some of the housing,” Ms Dixon said. 

In some places, such as Bourke, the issue of supply is being addressed through an entrepreneurial approach, where pubs have been converted into accommodation for workers. The fix, however, won’t sustain an entire community. 

Ms Dixon said that while there is more than enough policy from the government to build demand in housing, there isn’t enough to address supply. 

Inevitably, the best fix to the shortage will be development of local council owned blocks. 

“What we hope (councils) will do is move through a partnership so that we see that private developers tend to be able to do the work a lot more quickly than local government,” Ms Dixon said. 

While local rental prices have the edge of being more affordable than the coast, the dramatics of the current real estate market are also causing concern for the future of rental prices. 

According to the Productivity Commission Report on Government Services, in 2021 an alarming 45.7 per cent of people receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance still spent more than 30 per cent of their income on housing.

Kate Colvin, national spokesperson for  Everybody’s Home  said Australians were being squeezed at both ends of the housing system. 

“The Australian rental market now resembles a great white shark, swallowing family incomes almost whole. It’s simply astounding that even after receiving rent assistance, almost half of households are still in housing stress,” Ms Colvin said.

“The supply of affordable homes is rapidly vanishing for people on low and modest incomes as rents skyrocket. When federal politicians talk about a supply problem they need to get their priorities straight, we need more social and affordable housing to give people on modest incomes real choice,” she said. 

Both Ms Colvin and Ms Dixon agree that the policies in place are insufficient to closing the existing housing gap. 

RDA Orana will release a report in the coming weeks, identifying strategies that work to improve the housing outlook for Western Plains communities.