May 2015: The limited number of affordable housing options for young people is a significant issue in Australia’s current economic and social climate. Young people are increasingly finding it more and more difficult to locate housing that is within their budget and within geographical areas that provide easy access to their workplaces, places of education, their communities and friends. This, in turn, has a flow on effect on young peoples abilities to maintain work and study and save for future housing or other projects.
The majority of older Australians, if given the choice, would prefer to age at home, rather than move into residential facilities or centres, and often this means remaining in their family home which previously housed an entire family and now houses an individual or a couple. Many older Australians and Australians with disabilities may, at some point, have to make the decision to engage with privately paid services or services funded by the government in order to remain living in their own homes.
This policy paper will address the issues of housing that effect these two groups by proposing an alternative option for affordable housing for young people, based on an already existing international and domestic model of shared housing, known as ‘Homeshare’.