A tough year for families ahead

As the holiday period begins to wind down and we prepare to go back to work and school, some of the more serious issues start to move to the front of our minds. What sort of year is 2008 going to be?

With the recent interest rate rise and petrol prices predicted to hit two dollars a litre, there are definitely some warning signs ahead. The Real Estate Institute of Australia has also indicated that housing affordability is going to be even tougher this year.

So what does this mean for Australian families?

Research conducted by Mission Australia, Anglicare and the Brotherhood of St Laurence last year identified that families were already struggling with adequate daily meals and decent accommodation.

An increasingly tight rental market and higher homeloan interest rates are likely to compound financial issues even further for families battling to make ends meet.

The Government has taken initial steps to address the issue of housing affordability by establishing the Housing Working Group. It is envisaged that this group will work with state and local governments to investigate options for increasing housing supply to ease the pressure on families.

At Mission Australia, we believe these efforts to address housing and rental stress couldn’t come soon enough. Of the 100,000 homeless people in Australia, almost one quarter of these are families and half are under the age of 25.*

Significant inroads need to be made on the issue of housing affordability if we want to ensure that these statistics do not rise in 2008.

* Chamberlain and McKenzie, 2003