Homelessness becoming concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne, study finds

Extract from The Guardian

Housing

Rough sleeping is increasingly an urban problem with almost half of all rough sleepers now in capital cities, up from one third

Luke Henriques-Gomes

@lukehgomes

Thu 30 May 2019 04.00 AEST Last modified on Thu 30 May 2019 04.01 AEST

Homelessness in cities, such as Melbourne, is increasing in areas with a shortage of affordable private rental housing. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Australia’s homeless are becoming increasingly concentrated in the nation’s capital cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, according to a comprehensive study that tracks the changing geography of the problem over 15 years.
A report by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (Ahuri), released on Thursday, said the proportion of people experiencing homelessness in capital cities had increased from 48% to 63% over the period studied, 2001 to 2016.
“Homelessness is becoming more of an urban phenomenon,” said Sharon Parkinson, a researcher at Swinburne University. “Homelessness within the major cities is also becoming more dispersed across the city.”
Historically, a large share of homelessness had been concentrated in remote areas, Parkinson said, in part due to the way the issue was defined by demographers.

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“That’s still the case, per capita, it’s still where most homelessness is concentrated,” she added. “But if we look at where the shifts are concentrated, there is a move … from remote areas to the urban.”
The Ahuri study used census data dating back to 2001 to determine where people experiencing homelessness were living and how that has changed over time.
The problem of “rough sleeping has been transformed from a remote phenomenon to an urban phenomenon in the 15 years to 2016”, the report found.

“In 2001, roughly one-third of rough sleepers were located in capital cities, but in 2016 the share of rough sleepers in capital cities had reached nearly one-half of all rough sleepers,” the report said.
While homelessness is often thought of those sleeping rough, the definition used by demographers also includes people living in crisis accommodation, staying temporarily with friends or family, and those in overcrowded homes.

Parkinson said the study’s most “striking” finding was “the rate of overcrowding and how that is shaping a large part of homelessness growth”.
“Homelessness is rising in areas with a shortage of affordable private rental housing and higher median rents,” the study said. “This rise is most acute in capital city areas, specifically, Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne.”
The report, undertaken by researchers from Swinburne and RMIT, identifies a “corridor” in Sydney, from the inner city westward where homelessness rates are particularly high. It includes suburbs such as Marrickville, Canterbury, Strathfield, Auburn and Fairfield.
In Melbourne, suburban homelessness splays out in all directions, including hotspots such as Dandenong in the south-east, Maribyrnong and Brimbank in the west, and Moreland and Darebin in the north, and Whitehorse in the east.
In NSW, the state’s share of the nation’s homeless increased from about 25% to a third, between 2001 and 2016, with most of the increase concentrated in Sydney (16.1% to 24.9%). The state’s share of Australia’s population remained largely steady since 2001. Melbourne’s share of the nation’s homeless also increased – from 14.5% to 18% – over the period.
Conversely, smaller states and territories had a falling share of the national count. The share of homelessness in Queensland (18.7%), South Australia (5.3%) and Western Australia (7.7%) had reduced compared to 2001.
The report also found that “Indigenous background remains the strongest determinant of homelessness in remote areas, and much of this effect is accounted for by overcrowding”.
Parkinson attributed part of the shifting geography of the problem to the “processes of gentrification” in major cities.
“Our cities are undergoing a major structural change that is widening inequality and it’s having a spatial effect,” she said. “There needs to be a concerted effort to address that.”

Calling for more affordable housing as well as a broad range of housing types, Parkinson warned that despite declining growth in rent rises in some capitals, such as Sydney, the problem was a “long-term systemic change”.
“Low-income people are moving further out and even though rents are more affordable in those areas, if there are a number of people trying to compete for those affordable rents, there will be a discrepancy in supply,” she said.
It comes as the re-elected Coalition government is urged by welfare groups to tackle the issue head on. Scott Morrison has announced his new ministry will now be including a housing minister, Michael Sukkar, and an assistant minister for Community Housing and Homelessness, Luke Howarth.

While state governments have been blamed for a lack of investment in public and social housing, particularly in Victoria, advocates have also claimed the federal government lacks an overarching policy to address the issue.