UnitingCare Australia welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to the Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequality. As the national body for the Uniting Church’s community services network, UnitingCare Australia represents organisations delivering services across housing, homelessness, aged care, disability, family and domestic violence, mental health and emergency relief in communities throughout Australia.

Across our service network, housing insecurity is consistently identified as one of the most significant barriers preventing people from achieving positive social, health and wellbeing outcomes. While public discussion of housing inequality often focuses on differences between younger and older generations, our services see daily evidence that housing inequality is also deeply experienced within generations and accumulates across the life course.

This submission draws on the direct experience of UnitingCare service providers to illustrate how current housing policy settings contribute to intergenerational and intragenerational inequality, increase demand for crisis services, and shift costs onto health, care and community systems. It also outlines policy options to rebalance housing settings toward prevention, security and long-term wellbeing for current and future generations.

Download the PDF to read the submission in full.