Australian and state and territory governments provide various types of assistance to people having difficulty with finding or sustaining affordable and appropriate housing in the private housing market. Housing assistance refers to both access to social housing (such as public housing), and targeted financial assistance to eligible Australians.
Social housing program types
Social housing provides eligible households with rents set below market rates (based on a percentage of a tenant’s income). Forms of social housing include:
- public housing (rental housing managed by all state and territory housing authorities)
- community housing (housing managed by community-based organisations, available to low to moderate income or special needs households)
- state owned and managed Indigenous housing (housing provided and managed by state and territory governments available to households that have at least one member who identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin)
- Indigenous community housing (housing that Indigenous communities own and/or manage).
For more information, see Housing assistance.
Social housing
At June 2023, there were around 446,000 social housing dwellings in Australia, up from 443,000 in 2022.
There has been a decline in the proportion of social housing households in Australia, falling from 4.7% of all households in 2013 to 4.1% in 2023.
In 2023:
- most (314,602) social housing dwellings met the size requirements for the household composition.
- there were 60,730 dwellings that were considered to be underutilised and 20,979 dwellings that were considered to be overcrowded.
For more information, see Social housing dwellings and Suitability of dwellings.
Social housing allocations
In 2023, there were around 423,000 households living in social housing, with around 824,000 occupants throughout 2022–23.
In 2022–23:
- 32,400 households were newly allocated social housing (16,500 to public housing, 15,200 to community housing and 700 to state owned and managed Indigenous housing)
- 79% of new social housing allocations were to those in greatest need, such as people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
For more information, see Households and waiting lists, Occupants and Entries, exits and transfers.
Financial assistance
Governments provide financial support to assist people on lower incomes to meet housing costs.
At June 2023, around 1.3 million income units were receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), this is unchanged from June 2022.
In 2022–23, 56,900 households in Australia received Private Rent Assistance and 36,900 households received Home Purchase Assistance.
For more information, see Financial assistance.
