Invest In Public Housing – Homelessness Week Action

Sunday August 13, 2pm
430-434 Morphett Street, near Whitmore Square

In the face of the rental crisis, that has ravished so many people across the country with rent stress and the threat of homelessness, all the while being at the mercy of real estate agents and landlords, we have seen a deafening and insulting lack of political will from mainstream politics to ensure the fundamental right of all human beings to shelter.

In South Australia alone, according to the 2021 census, 7,428 people are homeless, an increase of 19.3% since the 2016 census, in spite of 86,000 homes being clearly shown as vacant in South Australia alone, and a figure closer to 1-million nationwide.

In addition to this, we have over 17,000 South Australians on the public housing waitlist, and unfortunately both Liberal and Labor governments over the last 20 years have sold-off over 20,000 necessary public homes.

This will be the first year of a net increase in public housing stock in decades, but the Malinauskas government is only building just over 500 public homes (and cancelling the planned sale of another 500 homes).

In a housing crisis, this is not adequate, and is detrimental to many South Australians. Governments like to blame the housing crisis on supply issues – well why doesn’t the government act on the real issue of supply that is public housing?

The housing towers on Morphett Street that lie abandoned and decrepit are a glaring example of current and former governments absolute failure in providing a strong and necessary public housing system.

If the powers that be wanted to fix homelessness, in South Australia or across the continent, the ingredients to do so are already present, and if society were to demand that leaving people unhoused is unacceptable, homelessness could be eradicated.

The Anti-Poverty Network invites all supporters to join us for a national homelessness week action in the Adelaide CBD at 2pm on Sunday August 13, at 430 Morphett Street, in front of one of the city’s most prominent blocks of empty former social housing, for a rally to demand housing justice, and the elimination of homelessness, and to celebrate the achievements of social and public housing, and mourn the tragedy of its erosion.